Environmental performance indicators

Introduction to the default list of environmental performance indicators

Before the publication of the first PCR under GPI 5.0.0, a second version of this page will be created to provide a new default list of indicators and support the development of EPDs compliant to GPI 5.0.0. Main changes will be the addition of another mandatory indicator (GWP-GHG, see PCR 2019:14 for a definition) and a list of additional requirements for complying with ISO 14067.

This is a list of the default environmental impact and inventory indicators, and impact assessment methods, to use in EPDs of the International EPD System.

Rules in a PCR may deviate from the default list, if such deviations have been justified in the PCR development process.

The default list is regularly updated based on developments in LCA methods, practices and standards, while ensuring the market stability of EPDs. In case of updates, the previous version of the default list is valid in parallel to the new version during a transition period of at least 90 days. Information about such transition periods are published here.

The latest update of the default list was made 2022-03-29, referred to as Version 2.0. This version has adopted the core environmental impact indicators of EN 15804:2012+A2:2019/AC:2021 as mandatory indicators. Among the inventory indicators of EN 15804, the six indicators of use of primary energy are mandatory, while the remaining 11 inventory indicators are optional. As such, Version 2.0 entails significant changes of the impact indicators compared to Version 1.0, while the inventory indicators remain the same but some of them have become optional. Note that the default list is for non-construction products, and that all inventory indicators of EN 15804 remain mandatory for construction products. More information about the indicators in Versions 1 and 2, respectively, can be found below.

Version 1.0 of the default list remained valid for a transition period ending 2022-12-31. However, registered EPDs using version 1.0 of the default list, or earlier versions of the default list, remain valid until their expiration dates.

The reference for the characterisation factors (CF) for Version 2.0 of the default list, the "EN 15804 reference package" provided by JRC (available at https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/LCDN/EN15804.html), was updated in February 2023. As of this update, the CFs are based on version 3.1 of the reference package for CFs used in the PEF framework (EF 3.1), instead of the previous version (EF 3.0). As it has taken time for LCA software to update the CFs in line with the latest version of the reference package, it has been possible to continue publishing EPDs using the old version (based on EF 3.0) during a transition period ending 2024-08-31. As of 2024-09-01, CFs based on EF 3.1 shall be used. The end date of this transition period was announced 2024-02-19.

The EPD should report whether the EN 15804 reference package based on EF 3.0 or EF 3.1 has been used.

Clarifications to the indicators and their methods may be found further down, in the Guidance on environmental performance indicators.

Global warming potential (GWP)

Four GWP indicators shall be declared, both for Versions 1.0 and 2.0 of the default list of indicators. The four indicators differentiate greenhouse gases depending on their origin: GWP-fossil, GWP-biogenic, GWP-land use and land use change (luluc), and GWP-total (the sum of the other three GWP indicators). More guidance can be found in the below section on Guidance on environmental performance indicators.

Version 2.0 of the default list of indicators (valid from 2022-03-29)

GWP100, EN 15804. Version: EF 3.1, February 2023.

Original reference
IPCC (2021)

Examples
1 kg carbon dioxide = 1 kg CO2 eq.
1 kg methane = 29.8* kg CO2 eq.
1 kg dinitrogen oxide = 273 kg CO2 eq.

Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators (valid until 2022-12-31)

GWP100, CML 2001 baseline. Version: January 2016.

Original reference
IPCC (2013)

Examples
1 kg carbon dioxide = 1 kg CO2 eq.
1 kg methane = 28* kg CO2 eq.
1 kg dinitrogen oxide = 265 kg CO2 eq.

*Please notice that the original source, IPCC (2013), differentiates "fossil methane" from methane.

Acidification potential (AP)

Version 2.0 of the default list of indicators (valid from 2022-03-29)

AP, accumulated exceedence, EN 15804. Version: February 2023.

Original references
Seppälä et al. 2006, Posch et al. 2008

Examples for unspecified emissions to air, unspecified location
1 kg ammonia = 3.02 mol H+ eq.
1 kg nitrogen oxides = 0.74 mol H+ eq.
1 kg sulphur oxides = 1.31 mol H+ eq.

Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators (valid until 2022-12-31)

AP, CML 2001 non-baseline (fate not included). Version: January 2016.

Original reference
Hauschild & Wenzel (1998)

Examples
1 kg ammonia = 1.88 kg SO2 eq.
1 kg nitrogen dioxide = 0.7 kg SO2 eq.
1 kg sulphur dioxide = 1 kg SO2 eq.

Please notice the use of non-baseline characterization factors for acidification potential.

Eutrophication potential (EP)

Version 2.0 of the default list of indicators (valid from 2022-03-29)

Three different EP indicators shall be declared:

EP, aquatic freshwater, EUTREND model, EN 15804. Version: February 2023.

Original reference
Struijs et al. 2009 as implemented in ReCiPe

Examples, emissions to fresh water
1 kg phosphorus = 1 kg P eq.
1 kg phosphate = 0.33 kg P eq.
1 kg phosporic acid = 0.32 kg P eq.

EP, aquatic marine, EUTREND model EN 15804. Version: February 2023.

Original reference
Struijs et al. 2009 as implemented in ReCiPe

Examples, unspecified emissions to air, unspecified location
1 kg nitrogen oxides = 0.389 kg N eq.
1 kg ammonia = 0.092 kg N eq.

EP, terrestrial, accumulated exceedance, EN 15804. Version: February 2023.

Original reference
Seppälä et al. 2006, Posch et al. 2008

Examples, unspecified emissions to air, unspecified location
1 kg nitrogen oxides = 4.26 mol N eq.
1 kg nitrate = 3.16065 mol N eq.
1 kg ammonia = 13.47 kg N eq.

Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators (valid until 2022-12-31)

EP, CML 2001 baseline (fate not included), Version: January 2016.

Original reference
Heijungs et al. (1992)

Examples
1 kg phosphate = 1 kg PO43- eq.
1 kg ammonia = 0.35 kg kg PO43- eq.
1 kg COD (to freshwater) = 0.022 kg kg PO43- eq.

Photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP)

Same indicator and method in Version 2.0 (valid from 2022-03-29) and Version 1.0 (valid until 2022-12-31) of the default list of indicators

POCP, LOTOS-EUROS as applied in ReCiPe, EN 15804. Version: February 2023.

Original reference
Van Zelm et al. 2008, ReCiPe 2008

Examples, unspecified emissions to air, unspecified location
1 kg nitrogen oxides = 1 kg NMVOC eq.
1 kg carbon monoxide (fossil) = 0.0456 kg NMVOC eq.
1 kg acetic acid = 0.164 kg NMVOC eq.

Ozone depletion potential (ODP)

Version 2.0 of the default list of indicators (valid from 2022-03-29)

ODP, EN 15804. Version: February 2023.

Original reference
WMO 2014

Examples for unspecified emissions to air
1 kg halon-1211 = 6.9 kg CFC 11 eq.
1 kg methyl bromide = 0.57 kg CFC 11 eq.
1 kg CFC 11 = 1 kg CFC 11 eq.

Please notice that this indicator is not included in Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators.

Abiotic depletion potential (ADP) for minerals and metals (non-fossil resources)

Same indicator and method in Version 2.0 (valid from 2022-03-29) and Version 1.0 (valid until 2022-12-31) of the default list of indicators

ADP minerals & metals, EN 15804. Version: February 2023.

Original references
Guinée et al. 2002, van Oers et al. 2002, CML 2001 baseline (Version: January 2016)

Examples
1 kg antimony = 1 kg Sb eq.
1 kg aluminium = 1.09 * 10^-9 Sb eq.
1 kg silver = 1.18 kg Sb eq.

Disclaimer is mandatory
The results of this indicator shall always be accompanied with the following disclaimer, both in the LCA report and in the EPD: "The results of this environmental impact indicator shall be used with care as the uncertainties of the results are high and as there is limited experience with the indicator."

Please notice that in Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators, this indicator may also be referred to as ADP elements.

Abiotic depletion potential (ADP) for fossil resources

Same indicator and method in Version 2.0 (valid from 2022-03-29) and Version 1.0 (valid until 2022-12-31) of the default list of indicators

ADP fossil resources, EN 15804. Version: August 2021.

Original references
Guinée et al. 2002, van Oers et al. 2002, CML 2001 baseline (Version: January 2016)

Examples
1 kg coal hard = 27.91 MJ
1 kg coal soft, lignite = 13.96 MJ

Water deprivation potential (WDP)

Same indicator and method in Version 2.0 (valid from 2022-03-29) and Version 1.0 (valid until 2022-12-31) of the default list of indicators

Water deprivation (Available water remaining (AWARE) method), EN 15804.

Original reference
Boulay et al (2017)

Example
The AWARE method is based on the inverse of the difference between water availability per area and demand per area. It quantifies the potential of water deprivation, to either humans or ecosystems, and serves in calculating the impact score of water consumption at midpoint in LCA or to calculate a water scarcity footprint as per ISO 14046. It is based on the available water remaining (AWARE) per unit of surface in a given watershed relative to the world average, after human and aquatic ecosystem demands have been met. The resulting CF ranges between 0.1 and 100, and is meant to be multiplied with the local water consumption inventory.

582 m3 water consumed per ton of grapes produced in Mendoza, Argentina:
WDP = 582 m3 water x 37.597 (Agg_CF_irri for Argentina) = 21,881 m3 world eq. deprived/ton grape

Please notice that in Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators, this indicator may also be referred to as water scarcity footprint (WSP). Sometimes it is also referred to as deprivation-weigthed water consumption.

Further information on impact indicators

For construction product EPDs, Table 3 in EN 15804 (“Parameters describing environmental impacts”) shall be applied in the PCR. These are the same as the Version 2.0 indicators listed above.

To find corresponding methods available in your LCA software, such as SimaPro, GaBi or openLCA, please see the documentation or contact your LCA software provider. To see the compliance of different versions of the CML-IA, see the version history available on their website.

The source and version of the impact assessment methods and characterisation factors used shall be reported in the EPD. Alternative regional impact assessment methods and characterisation factors are allowed to be calculated and displayed in addition to the default list. If so, the EPD shall contain an explanation of the difference between the different sets of indicators, as they may appear to the reader to display duplicate information.

Other impact indicators

To better characterize the environmental performance of a product category, a PCR may list further mandatory or voluntary indicators of potential environmental impacts. Also indicators not listed in the PCR may be declared if environmentally relevant for the product. Examples of further environmental impact categories to declare are:

ionising radiation, and
impacts of land use and land use change.

Any indicators declared should be based on international standards or similar methodologies developed in a transparent procedure. Reference to the declared indicators and their impact assessment methods shall be reported.

Use of resources

All the indicators for resource use listed below are mandatory if Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators are used. If Version 2.0 is used, the six indicators for primary energy resources are mandatory, and the other four indicators are optional.

Notes:

To identify the primary energy used as an energy carrier (and not used as raw materials), the parameter may be calculated as the difference between the total input of primary energy and the input of energy resources used as raw materials.
The energy content of biomass used for feed or food purposes shall not be considered.
The net use of fresh water does not constitute a “water footprint” as a potential environmental impact because the water use in different geographical locations is not captured. For this indicator:

Evaporation, transpiration, product integration, release into different drainage basins or the sea, displacement of water from one water resource type to another water resource type within a drainage basin (e.g. from groundwater to surface water) is included.
In-stream water use is not included.
Only the net water consumption (such as the reintegration of water losses) of water used in closed-loop processes (such as a cooling system) and in power generation should be considered.
Seawater shall not be included (it may be relevant to include seawater if it is used to obtain energy from it, or it is the only source of water in a definite site; this may be displayed separately, e.g. as “seawater for desalinization”).
Tap water or treated water (e.g. from a water treatment plant), or wastewater that is not directly released into the environment (e.g. sent to a wastewater treatment plant) do not count as elementary water flows, but intermediate flows from a process within the technosphere.
Additional transparency in terms of geographical location, type of water resource (e.g. groundwater, surface water), water quality, and temporal aspects may be included as additional information.

Further guidance to calculating the primary energy use indicators This guidance adapted from Annex 3 of PCR 2019:14 (version 1.3.1) but applies in general. An example illustrating the options (A-C) can be found in Annex 3 of PCR 2019:14 (versions 1.3.0 and later).

Among the indicators describing resource use, there are six indicators on the use of primary energy resources (in MJ, net calorific value). Three of the indicators are on the use of renewable energy resource, separated into energy used as raw materials (PERM), energy used as energy carriers (PERE), and the total renewable energy used as raw materials and energy carriers (PERT). The other three indicators are on the use of non-renewable energy use, separated into energy used as raw materials (PENRM), energy used as energy carriers (PENRE), and the total non-renewable energy used as raw materials and energy carriers (PENRT).

The energy used as raw materials is limited to the inherent energy of the product and the packaging. All other input of primary energy resources shall be considered as energy used as energy carrier.

If a material is first used as raw material in, for example, the packaging, and its energy content is later used as an energy carrier in the product system, it shall be classified as energy used as energy carrier, to avoid double counting of this energy. The energy used as raw materials shall be calculated by multiplying the mass (kg) of each material of the product and packaging content, with the lower calorific value (MJ/kg) of this material.

As for the biogenic content (see above guidance or Annex 2 of PCR 2019:14), inherent energy in the product or packaging (net calorific value) often needs to be checked and added manually when using LCA software, to ensure that the primary energy use is correctly separated into energy used as raw material and energy used as energy carrier and that no energy is unaccounted for. This also means that the inherent energy of input flows of reused or recycled material, or recovered energy, shall be considered. In other words, even if waste allocation (i.e., cut-off) has been used to allocate such input flows (i.e., they come without environmental burden), the energy that is in the flow shall be considered as an input of primary energy into the studied product system, following the rule in EN 15804 that inherent properties shall not be allocated away. Similarly, if materials leave the product system to reuse or recycling, or if energy leaves the product system (e.g., the useful energy from incineration or landfill with energy recovery), these flows shall be subtracted from the indicators of energy used as raw materials and energy carriers, respectively.

Based on different interpretations of EN 15804, there are three options for how to separate the use of primary energy into energy used as raw material and energy used as energy carrier: options A, B and C, as described below. Either option may be used. The option chosen should be (or shall be, if required by applicable PCR) described in direct connection to the declaration of the results of the primary energy use indicators in the EPD.

In option A, the energy used as raw material shall be declared as an input to the life-cycle stage/module where it enters the product system (in module A1-A3 for construction products) and as an equally large output from the product system where it exits the product system (i.e., module A5 for packaging content and module C3 and/or C4 for product content, for construction products) for use in another product system or as waste. Outputs in the form of waste shall, in the module where the loss occurs, be reported as an input in the indicator for energy used as energy carriers (even if the energy is not used in the product system). The rationale behind this option is that the indicator for energy used as raw materials shall reflect the input of energy that becomes part of the product and packaging, and the output of this energy from the product system regardless of when and how it exits the product system. That is, this indicator shows how much energy that is stored in the product or packaging at any given time. At the end of end-of-life stage/module C, energy is no longer stored in the product, and the energy used as raw materials will therefore be zero over the product life cycle.

In option B, the energy used as raw material shall be declared as an input to the life cycle stage/module where it enters the product system (for construction products: often in module A1) and as an output from the product system if it exits the product system as useful energy (for construction products: often from modules A5 or C3). Energy content that is wasted (e.g. in landfill or in incineration), remains as part of the indicator for energy used for raw materials, and shall not (in contrast to option A) be reported as an input of energy used for energy carriers. The rationale behind this option is that the indicator for energy used as raw materials shall reflect the energy used for the purpose of being raw material in the product or packaging, that is not subsequently transferred in useable form to another product system. In this option, energy used as raw material will often not be zero over the product life cycle. In option C, the energy used as raw material shall be declared as an input to the module where it enters the product system (for construction products: often module A1) and as an output from the product system if it exits the product system as useful energy (for construction products: often from modules A5 or C3). Energy content that is wasted in a landfill (but only in landfill, in contrast to option B) remains as part of the indicator for energy used for raw materials and shall not (in contrast to option A) be reported as an input of energy used for energy carriers. The rationale behind this option is that the indicator for energy used as raw materials shall reflect the input of energy that becomes part of the product and packaging, that is not subsequently transferred in useable form to another product system, which here includes energy that is landfilled, as this is potentially available for future extraction and use in a product system. The rationale is close to the rationale of option A, but as in option B, energy used as raw material will often not be zero over the product life cycle.

Note that the results of the total primary energy use indicators are not affected by the choice between options A-C, but only the division of this into energy used as raw materials and energy used as energy carriers.

Waste and output flows

The indicators for waste and other output flows listed below are mandatory if Version 1.0 of the default list of indicators are used, and optional if Version 2.0 is used.

Indicators describing waste

Indicators describing output flows

Notes:

The parameters are calculated on the gross amounts leaving the system boundary of the product system in the life cycle inventory. If there is no gross amount of leaving the system boundary, the results of the indicator shall be set to zero.
The parameter “Materials for energy recovery” does not include materials for waste incineration with energy recovery, unless all criteria for end-of-waste state have been fulfilled prior to the incineration. See Section A.5.2 of the General Programme Instructions (version 4.0) for further information.

Other inventory indicators
The PCR may add other voluntary or mandatory inventory indicators to declare in the EPD. Any indicators declared should be based on international standards or similar methodologies developed in a transparent procedure. Reference to the declared indicators and their methods shall be reported.

Guidance on environmental performance indicators

Below are some clarifications for the indicators of climate change, water depletion, resource use and waste generation. A PCR may provide further guidance for its specific product category. If below guidance deviates from a PCR or the underlying standard (e.g. EN 15804), the guidance in the PCR or the underlying standard shall be followed.

GUIDANCE ON THE CLIMATE CHANGE INDICATORS

Greenhouse gas emissions and removals
The climate impact assessment shall include emissions and removals of greenhouse gases arising from fossil sources, biogenic sources, and direct land use change. The reporting shall be done in separate sub-indicators for the different sources, unless other guidance is provided in the PCR.

For human food and animal feed, emissions and removals arising from biogenic sources that become an ingested part of the product shall not be included. Greenhouse gas emissions (except carbon dioxide, CO2) arising from the degradation of waste food and feed and enteric fermentation shall be included.

Where a secondary material with a carbon content enters the system boundary, the quantity of carbon content should be accounted in the same way as if it were a primary material. Thus accounting for the total quantity of carbon that the new product will contain and continue to store.

When GHG emissions and removals arising from the use stage and/or from the end-of-life stage occur over more than 10 years after the product has been brought into use, the timing of GHG emissions and removals relative to the year of production of the product shall be specified in the life cycle inventory (unless otherwise is specified in the reference PCR).

The effect of timing of the GHG emissions and removals from the product system, on the climate impact results, shall, if calculated, be documented separately in the EPD under Additional environmental information.

More guidance on the GWP-biogenic indicators is given below.

Carbon sequestration and stored carbon
When some or all removed fossil carbon is not emitted to the atmosphere within the 100-year assessment period, the share of such carbon not emitted to the atmosphere during that period shall be treated as stored carbon and be accounted for in the GWP-fossil indicator. Such carbon storage might arise, for example, when atmoshpheric carbon is taken up by a product over its life cycle (e.g. cement).

It is, however, not allowed to consider the effect of biogenic carbon storage (in the product or as a consequence of applying carbon capture and storage, CCS) when calculating GWP-biogenic results (this came into effect as of Version 2.0 of the default list of indicators). In case of such storage, a virtual emission of biogenic CO2 shall be added to the end-of-life stage, so that the uptake and emissions of biogenic CO2 are balanced out over the life cycle of the product. Such a virtual emission of biogenic CO2 shall also be assigned to the product system (not necessarily to the end-of-life stage) in case biogenic carbon exits the system boundaries as material to recycling or reuse or as secondary fuel. This is according to EN 15804, and shall thus also be applied in EPDs of construction products. However, how consideration of storage of biogenic carbon would influence GWP-biogenic results may be declared as additional results, either under Additional environmental information or in a subsection of the Environmental performance section (see the applicable PCR for more specific rules).

Land management might result in changes of carbon stored as soil carbon or forest biomass. Unless otherwise stated in the PCR, it is optional to consider this in the climate impact assessment. If soil carbon change is accounted for, the guidance of how to account for this in ISO 14067 shall be followed.

GHG emissions and removals occurring as a result of direct land use change (dLUC) within the last decades shall be assessed in accordance with internationally recognized methods, such as the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and included in the CFP. The net dLUC GHG emissions and removals shall be documented separately in the EPD. If site-specific data are applied, they shall be transparently documented in the project report. If a national approach is used, the data shall be based on a verified study, a peer reviewed study or similar scientific evidence and shall be documented in the project report.

More guidance on the GWP-biogenic indicators is given below.

Offsetting
Greenhouse gas emissions offset mechanisms shall not be used in the assessment of the carbon footprint indicators. The EPD owner may declare their participation in offsetting programmes or purchase of carbon neutral products separately in the additional environmental information section of the EPD, where these effects also may be qualified.

Aircraft emissions
Aircraft GHG emissions shall be included and documented separately if significant. Further, the guidance of how to account for aircraft GHG emissions in ISO 14067 shall be followed.

GWP-biogenic
As of version 1.2 of PCR 2019:14 Construction products, it includes an annex (Annex 2) explaining and illustrating the basic principles of collecting, reporting, and checking the mass balance of biogenic carbon and calculating the GWP-biogenic results. Below is included a short version of this. For more information, see Annex 2 in PCR 2019:14, which also includes an illustrative example.

Generally, the LCI shall separate between fossil and biogenic carbon (typically as biogenic CO2, biogenic CH4, etc). Furthermore, the LCI shall report GHG emissions that arise from land use or land-use change separately, which are neither included in the GWP-fossil or GWP-biogenic results, but in the GWP-luluc results, to avoid double accounting.

The amount of biogenic carbon is an inherent material property, which sometimes is not included, or correctly accounted for, in generic datasets available in LCA software. Therefore, the amount of biogenic carbon in the product or the packaging – which is needed to correctly calculate the GWP-biogenic results and account for the content declaration – may have to be checked and added manually.

If there is a biogenic CO2 emission that is not from the burning or degradation of the product or its packaging, the initial uptake of this biogenic carbon shall be reported in the life-cycle stage (or module) where the emission occurs. This means that such emissions and uptakes will be balanced out in each individual life-cycle stage (or module). When calculating the GWP-biogenic results, an emission of biogenic CO2 and its uptake can therefore be set to zero for all flows that do not end up as content of the product or the packaging. Note that this concerns when the biogenic carbon is emitted as CO2; if the biogenic carbon uptake is instead, for example, released as CH4, the GWP-biogenic results will not be zero in each individual life-cycle stage (or module).

In case the biogenic carbon ends up as product or packaging content, the biogenic CO2 emissions of incinerating or degrading this carbon will then appear in the end-of-life stage (for construction products: in module C for the product, or in module A5 for packaging). If the biogenic carbon content of the product is not incinerated at end-of-life, for example because the carbon is permanently stored in the product (for more than 100 years) or because the carbon leaves the product system for reuse or recycling into a new product, a virtual emission of biogenic CO2 shall be added to the life-cycle stage from which the carbon leaves the studied product system, which most often is the end-of-life stage (module C); similarly an uptake of biogenic CO2 shall be added in, for example, the upstream stage (module A1) if recycled/reused biogenic carbon is used as an input. Thus Version 2.0 of the default list of indicators, or EN 15804, does not allow credits due to delayed emissions or permanent storage of biogenic carbon (see Section 5.4.2 of EN 15804). In short, the sum of the sequestered and emitted biogenic carbon during the product life cycle will always be zero. Credits from permanent storage may, however, be described as additional environmental information, as the information may be of interest for users of EPD information.

For constructions products, the biogenic carbon of packaging material is most often emitted as biogenic CO2 emissions in module A5, and therefore the biogenic carbon stored in the packaging material can most often be balanced out within module A for (and thus A5 needs to be reported in such cases). Related, for construction products, note that biogenic carbon that ends up in product or packaging shall be separately declared in the content declaration, unless it is less than 5% of the mass of the product or the packaging, respectively.

In the end, the sum of the sequestered biogenic carbon and the biogenic carbon emitted or leaving the product system in any other way during the product life cycle shall always be zero.

When calculating the GWP-biogenic results, the LCA practitioner may notice that the LCI data as provided by the LCA tool/LCI database are not (normally) balanced out in each life-cycle stage/module, since the software/databases are not designed for this kind of calculation. Ideally this could be corrected by adding a sequestration of biogenic CO2 in the LCI within the same life-cycle stage/module. Alternatively, the emissions can be “neglected” by setting the CFs of these emissions to zero. Both alternatives follow the modular approach where the biogenic CO2 emissions are balanced out in each life-cycle stage/module.

An exception for when the contribution from uptake and emissions biogenic CO2 to GWP-biogenic is not zero over the product life cycle, is in EPDs of multiple products based on worst-case results. As such EPDs shall declare the worst-case results per module, there may be less uptake of biogenic CO2 in upstream processes than what is emitted in the use stage (for consumer packaging) or the end-of-life stage (for the product). This incomplete biogenic CO2 balance, and the resulting overestimated GWP-biogenic results, is accepted in such as EPDs and it represents a conservative estimate of the results of the product group.

The LCA practitioner is recommended to use the dry matter of any biogenic material that is reported in the LCI. It is also recommended to check that the combustion figures in the LCI are correct. An example for wood: the lower heat value for dry matter of a certain wood species is 19.2 MJ/kg and the carbon content can be set to 50%. It can now be calculated that 95 g CO2/MJ is emitted when this wood is completely burned (1/19.20.544/12=0.095 kg CO2/MJ). Moreover, the dry matter for this wood species is 390 kg/m3, which is equal to a sequestration of 715 kg CO2/m3 (3900.544/12) dry matter of wood.

GUIDANCE ON THE WATER DEPRIVATION INDICATOR

Net freshwater use is included as an indicator in the section of resource use, calculated from the life cycle inventory. The water deprevation potential provides further information related to the availability of water in different geographical locations.

GUIDANCE ON THE INDICATORS OF PRIMARY ENERGY RESOURCES

To identify the primary energy resources used as an energy carrier (and not used as raw materials), the indicator may be calculated as the difference between the total input of primary energy resources and the input of primary energy resources used as raw materials.

Energy content of biomass used for feed or food purposes shall not be considered.

GUIDANCE ON THE INDICATOR FOR NET USE OF FRESH WATER

The net use of fresh water does not constitute a “water footprint” as potential environmental impacts due to the water use in different geographical locations is not captured. For this indicator:

Evaporation, transpiration, product integration, release into different drainage basins or the sea, displacement of water from one water resource type to another water resource type within a drainage basin (e.g. from groundwater to surface water) is included.
In-stream water use is not included.
For water used in closed loop processes (such as cooling system) and in power generation only the net water consumption (such as reintegration of water losses) should be considered.
Seawater shall not be included (It may be relevant to include seawater if it is used to obtain energy from it, or it is the only source of water in a definite site. This shall then be displayed separately, e.g. as “seawater for desalinization”.)
Tap water or treated water (e.g. from a water treatment plant), or wastewater that is not directly released in the environment (e.g. sent to a wastewater treatment plant) are not elementary water flows, but intermediate flows from a process within the technosphere.
Additional transparency in terms of geographical location, type of water resource (e.g. groundwater, surface water), water quality and temporal aspects may be included as additional information.

GUIDANCE ON THE RESOURCE USE AND WASTE INDICATORS

These indicators account for resource used and waste produced along the whole life cycle of the declared product (upstream, core and downstream processes). They are the result of the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), and represent net flows of resources and waste crossing the system boundaries.

Please note that the waste treatment processes shall be included within the system boundaries, and that the waste indicator reflects any waste remaining after such processes and the default 100 year time period (see A.3.2 in GPI 4).

Also note that some aggregated generic LCI datasets, most notably those from the Ecoinvent database, normally include all waste treatment processes within the system boundaries, while other aggregated generic LCI datasets, such as Gabi datasets, often have flows of untreated waste exiting the system boundary. For the latter category of LCI datasets, a waste treatment process shall be added to the product system (if the waste is normally treated in the represented region).

GUIDANCE ON THE OUTPUT FLOW INDICATORS

The parameters are calculated on the gross amounts leaving the system boundary of the product system in the LCI. If, for example, there is no gross amount of “exported energy, electricity” leaving the system boundary, this indicator is set to zero.

The parameter “Materials for energy recovery” does not include materials for waste incineration. Waste incineration is a method of waste processing and is allocated within the system boundary. For further information, see the GPI.