Why is environmental transparency crucial in building design?
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) provide structured environmental information on construction products and are becoming increasingly important. They enhance transparency regarding the environmental impacts of building components and support designers and specifiers in assessing products within the context of an entire building. EPDs are neither an evaluation nor a sustainability label; rather, they constitute an objective data basis that makes environmental aspects visible and comparable alongside functional performance – particularly for safety-critical components such as fire doors.
What EPDs do – and what they don‘t
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardised and independently verified document. It is based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) and presents the environmental impacts of a construction product across defined life cycle stages, from production through to end of life (“from crade to grave”). An EPD shows where and to what extent environmental impacts arise, for example through material use, energy consumption or disposal.
In contrast to sustainability certifications or labels, which assess or classify products or buildings against defined criteria, an EPD provides neutral environmental information. It does not make any claim as to whether a product is sustainable or “better”; rather, it supplies robust data that must be interpreted within the specific project or system context.
The fact that some products have an EPD while others do not is not a reflection of their quality, but depends on the intended application, as well as project-specific requirements, specifications, or certification schemes. Since preparing an EPD involves a defined methodological effort, it is used selectively where transparent environmental performance indicators are required – for example, as a data basis for design and assessment.
Comparability
Transparency
Foundation for building certifications
EPD development: The standardised route to a verified environmental declaration
The development of an EPD follows a clearly defined and standardised process. First, the product and its intended application are specified. Based on this, relevant material, energy, and process data are collected and analysed in a life cycle assessment (LCA) across defined life cycle stages. The results are documented in accordance with established rules, ensuring that environmental impacts are presented in a transparent and comparable manner.
The EPD is then subject to independent third‑party verification. Only after successful verification is it published and made available for use in design, specification, and building assessment. This structured process ensures that EPDs are transparent, robust, and methodologically consistent.
Life cycle stages of construction products and services
Under standard DIN EN 15804, the life cycle is divided into the following modules:
Module A1–A3 / Product stage: Raw material supply, transport, and manufacturing
Module A4–A5 / Construction stage: Transport to site and installation
Module B1–B7 / Use stage: Use, maintenance, repair, replacement, refurbishment, operational energy use, and operational water use.
Module C1–C4 / End-of-life stage: Deconstruction or demolition, transport, waste processing, and disposal
Module D / Benefits and loads beyond the system boundary: from reuse, recovery and recycling
Added value of EPDs in passive fire protection
In industrial contexts, and particularly for components used in passive fire protection, EPDs offer clear added value by presenting product-specific environmental impacts in a transparent and comparable way. For manufacturers, designers, and system partners in the field of doors and closures, they provide an objective basis for considering environmental aspects – without assessing functional or safety-related performance.
Typical benefits of EPDs in the industrial and building components context include:
Presentation of relevant environmental impacts at product level, such as primary energy demand, CO₂ emissions, and recyclability
Comparability of functionally equivalent fire doors, without assigning “green” attributes to fire protection itself
Transparency as to whether environmental impacts arise primarily during production, installation, or end-of-life stage
Support for design and specification through the breakdown of environmental impacts by life cycle stage, rather than a single aggregated value
Clear distinction between environmental information and fire performance classification
A robust data basis for positioning solutions within complex system specifications
EPDs are already available for selected product lines, including within the KERAFIX® family.
Particularly in passive fire protection, EPDs demonstrate their strengths most clearly within the application context. Components are not considered in isolation but as part of technical solutions with clearly defined functional performance, where additional environmental information enables a more differentiated assessment.
Against this background, the KuhnOdice applies EPDs in a targeted manner to selected products and variants within the KERAFIX® family. These include, among others, Flexpan, Flexpress, and Flextrem types, which are grouped into product categories within the EPDs and assessed collectively.
The development of EPD data is carried out deliberately in-house and forms an integral part of product development. In this way, sustainability is not treated as an add-on but is considered from the outset.
This approach creates a robust data basis that allows fire protection solutions to be evaluated not only in terms of functional performance but also with regard to their environmental impacts within the respective application context.
Downloads
Context and outlook
Environmental Product Declarations provide transparency on environmental impacts at product level and complement existing technical and fire performance documentation. In passive fire protection, they are not used to assess safety or quality but serve as an objective information basis for the clear and traceable consideration of environmental aspects. When applied appropriately, EPDs enable well-founded decision-making between functionally equivalent solutions and support a differentiated, context-based evaluation of the environmental impacts of construction products.
Transparency that delivers value – for you! We are happy to advise you on our environmental certifications.
Request advice
"*" indicates required fields
Discover more
Explore the wide range of our solutions for fire safety.
