The Importance of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to Choosing the Right Screed for Sustainable Floors

That said, these standardised reports aren't always straightforward to navigate. This article unpacks the key concepts worth understanding when working with EPDs.

What is an EPD Certificate?

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardised, third-party verified document that reports the environmental impact of a product across its lifecycle — essentially a “nutrition label” for a product's environmental footprint.

EPDs quantify impacts like global warming potential (CO₂-equivalent emissions), resource depletion, water use, energy consumption, and waste generation. The data typically comes from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) covering some or all stages from raw material extraction through manufacturing, transport, use, and end-of-life.

They are prepared according to international standards, primarily ISO 14025, which sets the general framework and EN 15804 for construction products in Europe. The tested products are evaluated according to parameters such as resource consumption, air emissions, waste management, and embodied carbon from their manufacturing and transportation.

The goal of EPDs is to inform specifiers about the method of product preparation and its ingredients, so they can anticipate how it will affect the overall ‘health’ of a project. This helps specifiers select the best manufacturers to engage with and the most suitable products to specify, so they can ensure the optimal environmental profile for their project.

Are there different types of EPDs?

For screeds specifically, what governs the actual content and methodology is the Product Category Rule (PCR) for that product family (mineral binders/screeds typically sit under construction products PCRs based on EN 15804).

In general, there are three main types of public, externally published EPDs:

Product-specific EPDs are applicable to one product, one manufacturer, often one plant. The most rigorous and most required for individual specification.

Group EPD / product-group EPDs bundle similar SKUs together. They are useful when performance and bill of materials are close across a manufacturer's own product line, for example, several grades of the same screed binder.

Industry-average / industry-wide EPDs outline the aggregated environmental impact of a specific product within an industry, using production data from multiple producers in the same sector. These are generic declarations covering the average product across many manufacturers, often published by trade associations.

Why are EPDs so important for construction products such as screeds and binders?

The building sector's substantial role in driving greenhouse gas output has been well documented for decades. The bulk of mitigation efforts to date have concentrated on cutting ‘operational’ carbon — the emissions tied to heating, cooling, and lighting buildings once occupied. Progress here has been so significant that the UN Environment Programme projects operational emissions will fall from roughly 75% to 50% of the sector's total output in the years ahead. That shift, however, threw ‘embodied’ carbon into sharper focus: the emissions locked into manufacturing and transporting building materials, including the binders and aggregates that go into a screed, long before a floor is ever laid.

Environmental Product Declarations can be developed for a broad range of products and services, but they carry particular weight in the construction sector, where they offer a credible, verifiable means of disclosing a material's environmental footprint. This not only aids specifiers in their choice of materials for a specific project, but also prevents greenwashing and sets high standards across the industry.

For screed manufacturers specifically, EPDs are an essential tool for demonstrating performance against alternatives.

How does an EPD differ from a Lifecycle Assessment (LCA)?

LCAs and EPDs go hand in hand. LCAs behind EPDs are typically prepared by one of a few types of practitioners, depending on the manufacturer's size and resources: in-house sustainability or technical teams, specialist LCA/sustainability consultancies, or for industry-average or “association” EPDs - trade associations or industry bodies. ANHYDRITEC's own positioning of certifying our binders as made from the mining/industrial by-product anhydrite, complies with the International EPD System, registration number S-P-00387, covering anhydrite obtained as a co-product within our related companies’ industrial processes.

An LCA breaks down inputs and outputs at each stage of a product’s lifecycle and estimates the potential environmental impacts generated at each stage. This includes assessing:

Energy use per ton of material produced

Transport distances

Material input ratios

Carbon footprint

Water use

Acidification

Toxicity

This data is then summarised in a standardised format within an EPD in accordance with a specific standard and verified by an independent body. This makes it easily interpretable and comparable across different products, helping specifiers to make the correct choice for their project aims.

What are Product Category Rules (PCR)?

Product Category Rules (PCR) are the rulebook that defines exactly how an EPD must be built for a specific type of product (floor finishes, insulation, concrete blocks, etc.). They're what make EPDs comparable to each other rather than just isolated marketing claims.

For each defined product category, a PCR sets out which lifecycle stages must be included: raw material extraction, manufacturing, transport, use, end-of-life (often labelled A1–A3, A4, A5, B, C, D in the EN 15804 system). They lay out the fixed basis for comparison (e.g., “1 kg of binder”), which environmental impact categories must be reported (global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, resource depletion, etc.), as well as what data sources, databases, and calculation methods are acceptable.

Without a PCR, two manufacturers could build their LCAs completely differently: one might include transport and the other not, one might use a 50-year service life assumption and another 30, making any comparison meaningless. The PCR forces everyone in that product category onto the same footing, so a specifier comparing two screed binders is actually comparing like with like.

PCRs are written and maintained by program operators, such as EPD International, or standards bodies, usually with input from industry stakeholders, and go through their own review process before being published.

Are EPDs mandatory?

The EPD itself is still technically voluntary. No regulation directly states that every manufacturer must publish EPDs. However, several forces make them functionally required in practice. Firstly, regulation is making the underlying disclosure mandatory, even if the EPD format isn't named.

The revised EU Construction Products Regulation entered into force on 7 January 2025 and makes disclosure of climate- and environment-related sustainability indicators mandatory from 8 January 2026, for products covered by updated harmonized specifications. By around 2030, all core environmental indicators must be declared, and full life-cycle reporting kicks in by 2032. EPDs themselves remain voluntary, but the CPR's disclosure requirements are based on the same EN 15804+A2-type indicators an EPD already reports, so in practice, an EPD becomes the easiest way to comply.

The CPR applies starting with priority categories such as concrete, steel, and insulation, but even though screeds and binders aren't named as a first-wave priority category, they'd likely be swept in as “construction products” once relevant harmonized standards are updated.

In addition, public procurement and green building certification create de facto mandates for EPDs. Commercial pressure has always been stronger than regulation, so contractors increasingly screen bids using databases like EC3, where no EPD means no number, and no number makes a product look infinitely carbon-heavy by default.

Can EPDs for different products be compared and used interchangeably?

EPDs are built to be read clearly and weighed against one another, but what’s vital to specifiers is that no single, universal template governing how every EPD is assembled exists. For instance, some assessments rely on a ‘cradle-to-gate’ LCA, stopping at the factory door, while others extend to ‘cradle-to-grave,’ following the product all the way through disposal. That divergence alone can create substantial gaps between two products’ declarations, making a straightforward side-by-side comparison unreliable.

Due diligence is key when comparing EPDs: confirm that each EPD adheres to the same core PCR, draws on a matching sub-category PCR wherever one applies, captures all the pertinent information modules, and rests on comparable scenarios appropriate to the construction context in question.

Where can I find EPDs for specific products?

EPDs are often published on manufacturers’ website, in product literature, or in widely accessible EPD registries managed by industry groups or certification bodies. Our EPDs can be accessed via QR codes on individual product pages on our website or can be downloaded here.

What EPDs does ANHYDRITEC hold for its Gyvlon range of screeds?

ANHYDRITEC has both a binder EPD and family-level product EPDs issued by EPD International. On their website are published all our EPDs:

Our Gyvlon Binder EPD, provided by The International EPD System covers the raw anhydrite binder itself, separate from the finished screed products.

The XTR Flowing Screed Family EPD, registration EPD-IES-0009607:002 (S-P-09607) covers the United Kingdom geographically.

The Gyvlon ECO Flowing Screed Family EPD, registration EPD-IES-0005469:001 (S-P-05469) covers the ECO and ECO FD E2C variants.

These certificates are Type III, third-party verified, which means that they aren't self-declared Type II claims. They were completed and logged with an independent third party, EPD International (environdec), for both the screed-making binder and the screeds themselves. They are also product-group / family EPDs, not single-SKU EPDs, bundling similar SKUs when performance and bill of materials are close.

If you would like to find out more about the carbon footprint of our products or receive our sustainability-focused CPD, please get in touch.