A New Era of EPD Publishing: First EPDs via Scalable, High-Quality Digital Workflows

24 June 2026 | EPD

The International EPD System is entering a new era with end-to-end digital EPDs, enabled by fully pre-verified tools and seamless API integration. The first EPDs published through this process demonstrate how digital workflows can support the large-scale adoption of EPDs while maintaining high standards of quality and credibility.

In late May, the first batch of EPDs developed using fully pre-verified tools and API integration was published in the International EPD System (IES). This milestone marks the beginning of a new era in EPD development, enabling companies to streamline the generation of EPDs while facilitating more sustainable product development processes.

This digital EPD workflow operates within the open and transparent digital ecosystem of the International EPD System, enabling manufacturers with high EPD demand to partner with and receive support from a range of non-exclusive LCA and EPD tool providers. The innovation combines two complementary elements. First, fully pre-verified tools ensure that environmental calculations and data handling comply with the requirements of the International EPD System through a rigorous tool verification process. Second, API integration enables the automated transfer of EPD data between verified tools and the EPD Portal, eliminating manual data entry, reducing administrative work, and minimising the risk of human error.

Together, these capabilities create a scalable digital workflow that allows manufacturers to generate and maintain EPDs more efficiently while preserving the quality, credibility, and transparency of the resulting environmental information.

Elitfönster (EPD-IES-0032006:001 and EPD-IES-0031134:001), Gustafs Scandinavia (EPD-IES-0007746:001), and LK Systems (EPD-IES-0032448:001) are among the first manufacturers to adopt this approach. By partnering with tool developers, such as Miljögiraff AB and Tyréns, they have demonstrated the benefits of integrating fully pre-verified tools and API integration into their EPD development processes.

Tools for efficient EPD development, data insights, and maintenance

With a fully pre-verified tool and API integration, the time required for developing an EPD can be reduced from three to four months to just a few hours. This enables manufacturers with product portfolios that contain only minor variations in materials or components to develop multiple EPDs efficiently, rather than undergoing the verification process for each individual EPD and treating every product as a separate consulting project. This tool-based approach replaces a process that is both costly and time-consuming.

Beyond accelerating EPD development, fully pre-verified tools support manufacturers throughout the product development process by enabling comparisons of the environmental impacts associated with different materials and components. They also empower internal teams to explore and retrieve environmental data independently, without requiring them to become LCA experts.

This functionality is particularly valuable for:

Product development teams assessing the environmental impacts of alternative materials and components
Strategic procurement teams comparing environmental performance across suppliers and market offerings
Sales and customer support teams communicating product environmental performance to customers

“We recognised that a digital tool would enable us to quickly and efficiently evaluate how different supplier and material choices affect the product’s carbon footprint.”
— Mats Brånäs, Elitfönster

In addition to simplifying EPD development and environmental data management, these tools facilitate the ongoing maintenance and updating of EPDs by incorporating updated background data, helping manufacturers keep their environmental information current over time.

A fully pre-verified EPD tool is integrated into electronic and administrative systems in a way that maintains the integrity of pre-verified data and information. This approach enables the publication of EPDs without repeated simplified EPD verification, replacing these processes with verification of the tool and a sampled of the tool-generated EPDs. The rigorous verification process conducted by approved tool verifiers in the International EPD System ensures the quality and reliability of the environmental information published in the resulting EPDs. Nonetheless, the tool handling interface that documents the version information of EPD, PCR, and tool, as well as the version logs of EPDs in EPD Compiler facilitates the transparency of the declarations.

With the publication of these first EPDs, fully pre-verified tools are now being used across product categories including windows and doors, acoustic wall systems, and ball valves within the construction sector. Several manufacturers of cement and wood-based products are also adopting this approach for their EPD development.

"Fully pre-verified tools are verified according to the rules of the International EPD System, meaning that the tool itself is reviewed and quality-assured. As a result, the same level of quality assurance is reflected in the environmental information generated through the tool."
— Miljögiraff

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