Whitepaper: Operational models for creating EPDs

Deciding on how to set up EPD development in your company can be a challenge. Do you want full control by developing EPDs in-house? Or do you choose the flexibility of outsourcing? All these questions and more might come to mind. Read our whitepaper (find the link below) to learn what to consider before making your decision.

An increasing number of procurement departments now regularly request Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). These declarations are used by clients to support (bulk) purchasing decisions or as part of tendering processes. Given the likelihood that your clients will also start to request EPDs, it makes sense to decide how you will go about completing EPDs for your own product portfolio. Doing this raises the question: Do you want to focus on in-house EPD development, move towards outsourcing, or focus on a hybrid operational model instead?

The answer will depend on the specifics of your company, the market in which you operate, and the expected workload based on your product portfolio. To facilitate decision-making on this topic, we have drafted a whitepaper based on our 10+ years of experience helping companies through developing EPDs and supporting in-house teams with operational setup and training services.

In the paper, we discuss five points that help you form a good picture of the underlying considerations that will impact your decision. The paper will help you develop a strong understanding of this, and support you to reach a decision on selecting a preferred operational model for creating EPDs.

To do this we cover the following three operational models:

1. In-house EPD development by the internal LCA department
2. Outsourcing EPD development to an external LCA service provider
3. Flexible external support to a smaller in-house LCA department

We also dive deeper into the following five underlying considerations to help you decide between the three models:

• EPD platform provider selection
• The volume of work and market requirements
• The extent of variations of production processes involved
• Level of upfront and ongoing investment
• Balancing EPD workload against other (internal) priorities

If you want to find out more or discuss how we can help you with either setting up an in-house EPD department or exploring opportunities for outsourcing, please contact us by phone or email or directly schedule a call with our consultants.