EPD stands for ‘environmental product declaration’ and is a written declaration containing quantified information about a given set of environmental impacts based on a life-cycle analysis.

The Royal Decree on Environmental Messages provides for the creation of a federal EPD database and lays down various rules that are characteristic of EPD programmes. The EPD programme applies the requirements of the Royal Decree on Environmental Messages. The FPS of Health relies on the NBN EN ISO 14025 standard, thus acting as programme operator. The programme of the FPS of Health is named ‘Belgian EPD Programme’ or B-EPD in short.

The principal aim of the Belgian EPD programme is to provide interested organisations with a framework for developing and making available EPDs in accordance with the Royal Decree on EPDs. The B-EPD programme is applicable to building products that are placed or made available on the market in Belgium or that can be used in buildings on the Belgian territory.

The programme started on 7 December 2016.

Some FAQ are listed here : FAQ (EN only)

Structure

The programme operator is the FPS of Health. The FPS is assisted by a steering committee, an advisory committee, an expert committee, a committee for reviewing PCR documents and an inspectors committee. More information can be found in the General programme instructions.

Verification

An EPD is in accordance with the B-EPD programme when its conformity with the Royal Decree on Environmental Messages and the General programme instructions has been verified.

This can only be done by an inspector who has registered with the programme operator in advance. Information about the procedure and its costs can be found in the reference documents.

The manufacturer is free to choose an inspector from the list of registered inspectors.

Introduction of EPDs in the TOTEM library

Since the launch of TOTEM in 2018, generic environmental impact data were used to assess the impacts of buildings and elements.

This year, we will introduce specific environmental data, declared by manufacturers through an EPD (Environmental Product Declarations).

The EPD data will be retrieved from the Belgian B-EPD database. Coupling the B-EPD database to TOTEM first required a clear and stable framework: since November 2019 the amendment A2 to the standard EN15804 has been adopted at European level. This allows us to define the conditions for the integration of EPDs in TOTEM for the next five years.

The integration will take place in 2 steps, each time preceded by a test phase:

  • By mid 2020, the validated and verified B-EPDs that have been established within the framework of EN15804+A1 will be integrated into the TOTEM library; they will be publically available until the end of 2020.
  • At the beginning of 2021, TOTEM will undergo a major update to comply with the standard EN15804+A2. From then on, all verified and validated B-EPDs established according to the standard EN15804+A2 will be included in the TOTEM library. TOTEM will maintain this framework for 5 years.

If you have other questions regarding the EPD implementation into TOTEM or if you wish to participate in the second test phase (second half of 2020) with B-EPDs according to EN15804+A2, you can contact the TOTEM-helpdesk.

We would like to encourage all manufacturers to start creating their own B-EPD according to EN15804+A2; from 2021 these data will be publicly available for use by all TOTEM users! For specific questions regarding B-EPD you can contact the Federal Public Service of Health (epd@health.fgov.be).

 

Reference documents

Methodology

If you want to have your B-EPD used in the building tool calculator of the regional authorities (Totem), you have to use the following files when you use Simapro or Gabi.

This files are only relevant for B-EPDs according to EN 15804+A1. For EN 15804+A2 the full set of core and additional indicators of the standard are applicable.

Do you wish to register as an verifying party?

The guidelines and rates for registering can be found in the reference document ‘Requirements for verifying persons’..

Stay informed

Register via epdnews@environment.belgium.be to be informed when important news or new documents are published.

Contact

Federal Public Service (FPS) of Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment

Product Policy Department
Place Victor Hortaplein 40, box 10
1060 Brussels
Phone number: +32 (0)2 524.97.97
E-mail: epd@environment.belgium.be