New version of the General Programme Instructions published!

The update was made to stay relevant and up-to-date following developments in methodology, standardisation, research and applications of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). They enable organisations in any country to communicate the environmental impacts of their products in a quantitative, credible, comparable and understandable way based on international standards.

Some of the new features of the new GPI are:

• New rules for adding multiple products in the same EPD
• Removal of indicators and characterization methods from the GPI
• Product Category Rules (PCR) contents and development process aligned with the latest standards and practices, including new feature of a PCR template which substitutes the PCR Basic Modules
• Further clarifications on the use of pre-verified tools
• Clarifications regarding the requirements for individual verifiers and the verification process
• Added procedure for products not yet on the market
• Update of the general LCA methodology to align with latest standards and practices
• Editorial changes for consistency and clarity

A transition period will be applied to allow a smooth transition to the new rules:

• The publication of the new version of the GPI does not affect the validity of already-published EPDs, which will remain published with the same validity date as before. Surveillance of EPDs during their validity is based on the same version of the PCR and GPI that was used for the verification of the current valid EPD.
• If a valid PCR based on version 4.0 of the GPI does not exist, EPDs may be published and updated based on valid PCRs that are based on older versions of the GPI during the transition period.
• Version 4.0 of the GPI will be implemented step-by-step into existing PCRs when they are due for update, or during their validity. Work has also started to update the website, templates, etc., which will be introduced gradually.
• PCRs that are currently under development should be aligned with the latest GPI version. Exceptions are allowed for cases where the development is already far progressed.
• The transition period will last for at least 18 months, and the end of the transition period will be announced six months before it ends.

We are here to support you in case you have any questions.
Contact us by: support@environdec.com.

The GPI document is available for download in our "Resources" section