Buy Clean legislation is moving fast, and LEED v4 requirements are compounding it. US manufacturers need Environmental Product Declarations, and they need practitioners who can produce ones that hold up under independent verification. We’re a specialist EPD and LCA practice. We deliver verified, programme operator–registered EPDs for manufacturers directly, and as the technical partner behind consultancies who need to serve them.
An EPD used to be something a manufacturer might produce to stand out. That’s changed. In meaningful parts of the US construction and procurement market, you either have one or you’re out of the conversation. The demand is real, it’s accelerating, and there aren’t enough qualified practitioners to meet it.
California started it, embodied carbon limits on structural steel, flat glass, mineral wool and rebar for state-funded construction. Colorado, Oregon, Washington, New York and Minnesota have since followed suit in one form or another. The federal Buy Clean Initiative now applies the same logic to federally funded infrastructure.
For manufacturers in these markets, an EPD isn't a marketing exercise anymore. It's a contractual requirement. Without one, your product doesn't get evaluated, regardless of price or performance.
LEED v4 introduced the MR Credit for Building Product Disclosure and Optimization, awarding points when products carry EPDs conforming to ISO 14025 and EN 15804 or ISO 21930. Architects working on LEED projects have started requiring EPDs from their supply chains. Not as a preference, as a project requirement.
Products without EPDs get passed over. It's that direct. And it's reshaping purchasing decisions across the construction sector in a way that's unlikely to reverse.
Scope 3 Category 1, purchased goods and services, is usually the biggest undocumented emissions source in a manufacturing supply chain. The GHG Protocol requires it to be reported. The SEC's climate disclosure framework is pushing major corporates to get specific about their upstream numbers.
For manufacturers supplying corporates with net zero targets, EPDs and LCA data are turning up in supplier qualification requirements. This isn't a phase. It's how supply chains work now.
EPD demand is growing faster than qualified LCA practitioners are entering the US market. Sustainability and environmental consultancies are regularly being asked about EPDs by manufacturing clients, and a lot of them are turning the work away, referring it elsewhere, or delivering something that doesn't hold up under scrutiny. We work directly with manufacturers who need verified declarations, and with consultancies that want to offer EPD services without building the capability in-house.
A credible EPD is more than running numbers through software. You need solid primary data, careful dataset selection, precise PCR application, and documentation thorough enough to get through independent verification without being sent back. We manage the whole workflow.
Before anything else, we define the product system, functional unit, system boundary and cut-off criteria, and go through the applicable Product Category Rules in full. Misapplying a PCR before modelling starts is the most common cause of costly rework. Getting this right first saves time and money later.
We send a structured data collection workbook and work directly with your production, procurement and facilities teams. We need annual data on energy by source, raw material inputs and origins, water, waste streams and transport. We push back on anything that doesn't reconcile, handle unit conversions, and check every entry against ISO 14044 data quality requirements.
We build the life cycle model in SimaPro or OpenLCA, linking your foreground data to background datasets from ecoinvent. Dataset selection matters more than most clients initially realise, a wrong geographic or technological proxy can shift a GWP result by 20% or more. We select the most representative dataset for every input, document our choices, and run impact calculations across all required categories.
We produce the EPD document to the exact content and formatting requirements of the programme operator, environmental performance results, resource use, waste and output flows, end-of-life scenarios, all required background information. We also produce the full Background Report and LCA documentation package. The verifier goes through all of it. We don't treat this as an afterthought.
We submit to a programme operator–approved verifier and manage the whole review. A serious verifier will challenge dataset selections, push on system boundary decisions and query any documentation gaps. We respond to every comment with evidence, working through revision rounds until we get formal approval. We've been through enough verifications to anticipate the questions before they're asked.
We handle programme operator registration and publication making sure your EPD is correctly listed on the programme operator database and, where relevant, on EC3, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator that US architects and contractors use to compare products and check Buy Clean compliance. A published EPD that isn't on EC3 is largely invisible to the people who drive specification decisions.
The question we hear most from manufacturers is why it takes months when the software runs in hours. The software isn't the bottleneck. Primary data collection routinely takes four to six weeks even with a cooperative team and that's before verification, which typically runs two to three rounds of review over four to eight weeks. Any firm promising fast turnaround is cutting corners somewhere in data quality, PCR compliance, or verification rigour. Those shortcuts surface when a verifier looks closely, or when the EPD gets challenged.
We work two ways: directly with manufacturers who need EPDs, and as the specialist technical partner for sustainability, environmental and engineering consultancies whose clients need EPDs but who don't have in-house LCA capability.
If you make construction materials or building products and need an EPD. Whether for Buy Clean compliance, a LEED project specification, a customer questionnaire, or getting ahead of competitors, we manage the entire process. You provide production data. We handle everything else, through to a publicly registered, independently verified Environmental Product Declaration.
If your clients include manufacturers and they're starting to ask about EPDs, you've got a real choice: build in-house LCA capability from scratch in a market where experienced practitioners are thin on the ground or work with us.
We do the technical work. You keep the client relationship, invoice at your own rates, and deliver under your brand. It's a standard professional services subcontract, the same way architecture firms work with structural engineers, or law firms bring in specialist counsel.
The software does the maths. The quality of an EPD is determined by everything around the maths: which background datasets you select and why, how you define the system boundary for that specific product, how you interpret the PCR where it's ambiguous, how you structure the documentation for the verifier. These are judgment calls that come from having done this many times, not from reading a manual.
We come from the European EPD market, working under EN 15804, widely considered the most methodologically demanding EPD framework operating anywhere. EN 15804 requires comprehensive impact category coverage, strict background database transparency, explicit justification for every dataset selection, and detailed scenario modelling for end-of-life and beyond-boundary impacts. Working to that standard for years builds practitioner judgment that transfers well to the US market, and in most cases exceeds what US PCR frameworks actually require.
We know what verifiers look for because we've been through the process enough times to anticipate the questions before they're formally asked. We front-load documentation, make dataset selections that are genuinely appropriate rather than just defensible, and structure submissions that don't generate unnecessary queries.
Every EPD we produce is conducted in compliance with internationally recognised standards and applicable PCRs, independently verified by a programme operator–approved third party, and registered for public access on the relevant database.
LCA Standards
EPD Frameworks
Programme Operators
Background Databases
Published EPDs are searchable on programme operator databases and on EC3, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator used by US architects, engineers and contractors to compare product carbon performance and check Buy Clean threshold compliance. We make sure every EPD we produce is correctly listed on EC3 as part of the standard publication process. An EPD that doesn't appear there is invisible to most of the people making specification decisions.
Every engagement starts with a scoping call, no commitment, no pressure. We'll tell you what's involved, what it costs, and what the timeline looks like. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so.