About Toby
With a passion for sustainability and a love for complex data, Toby helps manufacturers efficiently collect data from across their organization and get their EPDs done right. He’s especially interested in how AI can support human expertise, helping R&D and factory teams work faster, smarter, and with less friction.
Recent Articles
Washington’s 2025 Capital Budget: EPD Stakes Rising
Olympia just green-lit $7.6 billion in bricks, wires, and rebar for the 2025-27 biennium (HB 1216/SB 5195, 2025). That cash comes with strong Climate Commitment Act strings and the Buy Clean & Buy Fair reporting law. If your concrete, steel, or mass-timber shows up without a recent EPD, you’ll watch those dollars march past you to a rival.
Pennsylvania HB 1711: Cash for Low Carbon Concrete
Ready-mix, precast, or masonry—if your plant ships 50 cubic yards of concrete to a state-funded project in Pennsylvania, House Bill 1711 will pay you up to 8 percent of the delivery price for cutting embodied carbon. The clock starts 60 days after the bill takes effect, and the annual pot is only $5 million. Miss the paperwork, miss the money.
WA SB 5810: Budget Fuel for “Buy Clean” Reporting
Washington’s new operating budget quietly earmarks cash to turn the state’s “Buy Clean & Buy Fair” act from good intentions into hard procurement rules. If your concrete, steel, or cladding still lacks an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), the clock just started ticking.
Washington HB 1458: Embodied-Carbon Wake-Up Call
A new Washington bill puts facility-specific EPDs on the critical path for any project over roughly 100,000 ft². If HB 1458 survives the 2025–26 session, design teams will have to prove a 30 % embodied-carbon cut by the 2030 code cycle or reuse nearly half the existing structure. Manufacturers without credible, product-level data risk being swapped out of specs before they ever see a bid invite.
What New Hampshire H.B.306 Means for Manufacturers
New Hampshire’s H.B.306 never made it off the House table this February, but it spotlights a question bigger than one statehouse vote: if carbon gets a price tag, will your product data be ready for the checkout line?
Nebraska’s Urban Development Incentive Act: EPD Ripple Alert
Nebraska lawmakers are weighing L.B.164, a bill that would pour up to $46.5 million a year into grants for projects in economically distressed areas. The catch: extra money flows only when a development earns green-building stripes such as LEED certification. That single clause could quickly boost demand for product-specific EPDs across the Cornhusker State—even before a single shovel hits the dirt.
EPD Headlines: September 2025 in Five Regions
From fee hikes in Berlin to fresh steel data in Chicago and a new automated tool in Munich, September packed plenty of EPD plot twists. Here’s your speed-read so you can tweak road-maps and budgets before Q4 bites.
Minnesota Eyes Hempcrete and Strawbale in 2024 IRC
Minnesota is weighing whether to fold Appendix BL (hemp-lime “hempcrete”) and Appendix BJ (strawbale) from the 2024 International Residential Code into its state code. For material makers this small line of legal text can flip a switch: one day your low-carbon wall system is a niche curiosity, the next it is code-recognized and spec-ready.
Minnesota SF 3136: EPDs Set to Steer State Purchasing
Minnesota already shells out more than $2 billion a year on goods and services for public projects (Minnesota Department of Administration, 2024). If SF 3136 passes, that spend will lean heavily toward products backed by trustworthy Environmental Product Declarations and low-carbon benchmarks. Here’s what manufacturers need to know before the procurement tide turns.
Minnesota HF 14 supercharges EPD grants for road materials
Minnesota’s latest transportation finance bill quietly sets aside $310,000 to help concrete, asphalt and steel producers secure third-party Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) before new global-warming-potential caps kick in. Miss the grant window and you may pay the full LCA tab yourself—while competitors slide into MnDOT bids with state-subsidized documentation.
Hawaii Tests the Waters with Buy Clean Study
Aloha State lawmakers want to know if public projects can swap out high-carbon concrete, steel, and glass for lower-impact options without blowing up budgets. House Bill 787 and its Senate twin (S.B. 1017) order a deep dive, due to the Legislature in early 2027, on how a “Buy Clean Hawaii” policy might work. For manufacturers, the three-year runway is both a warning light and a golden ticket.
CT HB 6784: Will Low-Carbon Concrete Get a Boost?
Connecticut lawmakers have floated HB 6784, a bill that would dangle new incentives in front of contractors who pour low-embodied-carbon concrete. The proposal is still winding through committees, yet it already signals where public procurement is headed. Manufacturers that can back their mixes with bullet-proof Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) stand to gain specification share—everyone else risks being left on the curb.
Colorado SB 182: C-PACE Embraces Embodied Carbon
Colorado just rewired its popular C-PACE financing to reward low-carbon construction materials. SB 182 opens the program—and a refreshed state tax credit—to products that can verify at least a 15 % cradle-to-gate emissions drop. Translation: if your cement, steel, or insulation carries a rock-solid EPD, you could find yourself suddenly irresistible to developers hunting cheaper capital.
GPT-Powered BOM Data and MCP Are Next for EPDs
Bill of materials spreadsheets still suck hours out of every EPD project. Imagine an AI that hoovers up plant data, maps it to a PCR template, and lets your team move on before lunch. The building blocks already exist, just not in one place yet.
ASTM’s EPD Program: What Manufacturers Need to Know
ASTM International is better known for concrete slump cones than carbon accounting, yet its Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) program quietly exploded in the last three years. The public list on ASTM.org now holds over 1,200 verified EPD PDFs that span cement, aggregates, masonry, roofing membranes, wood doors, and more (ASTM EPD list, 2025). If your sales team chases North American projects that lean on LEED, CalGreen, or Buy Clean California, understanding how the ASTM operator works can shave weeks off bid prep—and keep specs from walking to a rival.
NSF International: What to Expect from Its EPD Program
A familiar NSF mark on faucets and filters now crops up on Environmental Product Declarations too. For manufacturers eyeing north-American projects, choosing the Ann Arbor-based operator can feel safe yet slow. Here is what the data says and where surprises lurk.
ÖKOBAUDAT: Your Passport to German Green Specs
German public projects worth roughly €25 billion a year will not touch a construction product unless its LCA data lives inside ÖKOBAUDAT. Miss the upload and you miss the bid—simple as that.
Functional Unit vs Reference Unit: Get Them Right
Your next EPD lives or dies on a single line: the unit that anchors every impact figure. Botch that definition and comparisons fall apart, reviewers bounce the file back, and specifiers shrug. Nail it and you unlock apples-to-apples clarity that wins bids. Here is how to keep the two unit types straight, fast.
ILCD XML: The Passport Your LCA Data Needs
Construction buyers no longer lean on glossy PDFs alone. BIM platforms, digital product passports, and automated tender portals all ask for machine-readable life-cycle numbers. If your environmental data still lives in scattered spreadsheets, every upload feels like paperwork déjà-vu. Enter ILCD XML, the lingua franca that turns raw inventory lines into plug-and-play data blocks.
EP Regulations: What 2025 Means for Manufacturers
Carbon rules are changing faster than a TikTok trend. Federal pullbacks in Washington sit beside ambitious state mandates and fresh EU directives. If your product data lives in spreadsheets, you might feel the squeeze before year-end.
From EPD Sheet to Whole-Building Scorecard
Architects and LCA consultants rarely read your EPD the way you do. Instead, they scrape the underlying numbers—impact per kilogram, declared unit, module splits—and funnel them straight into digital tools that calculate a building’s carbon footprint in minutes. If your product lacks an EPD, the software swaps in a generic stand-in with higher impacts, nudging you off the spec list before you even hear about the project.
Health Product Declarations, demystified
Ever been asked for an HPD at the eleventh hour and felt your stomach drop? You’re not alone. Health Product Declarations sit beside EPDs on bid checklists, but they shine a spotlight on material ingredients rather than carbon. Nail them and you keep your products in play for LEED v5 projects and municipal healthy-materials mandates. Miss them and your spec can vanish faster than popcorn at a movie night.
International EPD System: Your Product’s Global Green Passport
Trying to win bids in Europe on Monday and the Gulf on Friday? Specifiers everywhere want an Environmental Product Declaration they can trust. The International EPD System, run from Sweden, has become a stamp of credibility worldwide, and the one of the fastest routes to getting your product accepted across continents.
Digital Product Passports: Ready for Construction Products?
AI, BIM, EPDs—you finally felt caught up, then Brussels dropped the Digital Product Passport. Starting as early as 2026 every steel beam, insulation roll, or window frame sold in the EU will need a scannable QR that spills its environmental secrets. Miss the deadline and your product could sit on the tarmac while rivals unload on site.
Continuous ISO & PCR Compliance
ISO clauses adjust, PCRs expire, and the clock keeps ticking. Blink and you may base a million-dollar bid on an outdated rulebook. Here’s how manufacturers keep every new gasket, panel, or coating aligned with the latest ISO 14040/44, ISO 14025, and their sector’s Product Category Rules—without burning evenings chasing footnotes.
August 2025 Roundup: EPD Headlines Around the Globe
Carbon metrics never sleep. From Caltrans doubling down on Buy Clean to Beijing’s new digital passport framework, August served a full buffet of policy tweaks and milestone EPDs. Here is the month’s need-to-know in one quick lap around the map.
Buy Clean Limits: Beat the Carbon Caps
State "Buy Clean" laws are moving from feel-good slogans to hard carbon caps. Miss the limit and your material never makes it onto the bid list. Here is what the latest thresholds look like, why EPDs are the only passport, and how to stay out in front even as Washington backpedals.
NDA or Not? EPD Projects Explained
Handing over plant-floor data can feel like playing poker with your cards face-up. Will an NDA keep competitors from peeking, or does it just slow the shuffle? This quick guide sorts real risk from paperwork theater so you can protect secrets without tripping your own timeline.
Steel vs Coatings: The EPD Momentum Gap
Steel makers are cranking out Environmental Product Declarations like stadium anthems, while paint, coating, and adhesive brands still rehearse in the garage. If your product lives under a layer of color or glue, ignoring that gap could knock you off project short-lists before the next bid cycle even starts.
When Are Environmental Product Declarations Mandatory?
Plenty of manufacturers still ask, “Do we **have** to publish an EPD?” The short answer: sometimes. The longer answer: the list of projects that *effectively* require an EPD is mushrooming, even when the law stops short of saying "shall." Knowing where those tripwires sit lets you plan ahead rather than scramble once a spec lands on your desk.
How Artificial Intelligence Can Support First Pass LCA Bill of Materials (BOM) Mapping
Manual life-cycle inventory mapping once meant staring at spreadsheets for days. Today, advanced reasoning models can connect a 3,000-line bill of materials to the right ecoinvent or GaBi LCI flows in minutes. The grunt clicks vanish, yet the need for domain expertise stays, get the speed boost without surrendering judgement.
EPD Comparability Rules: Ensure Apples Match Apples
Two Environmental Product Declarations may look alike at first glance, yet comparing them can be as futile as judging a grapefruit against a granny-smith. Misreading the fine print risks bad purchasing calls, lost tenders, and greenwashing claims that boomerang in courtrooms. This quick-fire guide shows when EPDs *are* truly comparable, and the red flags that say "don’t even try."
Bau EPD GmbH: Austria’s EPD Gateway
Snagging a pristine LCA is only half the battle. If your declaration never lands in the right databases or can’t satisfy local building certifiers, the paperwork sits idle. Bau EPD GmbH steers Austrian compliance, and a good slice of Central Europe’s, by pairing ISO-accredited verification with plug-and-play links to baubook, ÖKOBAUDAT, and the ECO Platform.
Primary Data: The EPD Accuracy Multiplier
Specifiers no longer settle for industry-average footprints. Miss too much primary data and your environmental product declaration picks up a 30 % uncertainty surcharge that can price you straight out of a bid (NMD, 2025). Here’s why getting plant-level numbers matters, and how to gather them without grinding production to a halt.
Digital EPDs: From PDFs to Plug-and-Play Data in XML or JSON
Still copying numbers out of static EPD PDFs? Machine-readable files can drop that grunt work to nearly zero and plug your products straight into BIM, procurement portals, and carbon calculators. Here is the fast track to formats, file sources, and future-proof prep.
Level(s) Indicators Fuel EU EPD Momentum
Architects across Europe are starting to ask suppliers for numbers that plug straight into the EU’s Level(s) calculator. If you cannot answer with robust life-cycle data, your products risk sliding off shortlists the moment the tender goes green.
Make Your EPD Unmissable: A Practical Marketing Guide
An Environmental Product Declaration only moves the sales needle if buyers can spot it faster than they find a competitor’s product information. Eighty-nine percent of architects head straight to a manufacturer website for technical data and certifications during product research. Use the checklist in this article to surface your declaration everywhere decision-makers already look.
Six Steps to Your First EPD
An Environmental Product Declaration can unlock bids, meet low-carbon procurement rules, and earn LEED points, yet many teams spend months circling step one. Here is the no-fluff roadmap to move from blank spreadsheet to a verified, published declaration without losing sleep (or your launch date).
Hazardous Waste Data: The EPD Wildcard
No product manager brags about their hazardous-waste line item, yet the kilograms you generate, recycle, or landfill can nudge an Environmental Product Declaration from “nice try” to “spec-winner.” Skip or fudge the metric and the whole LCA wobbles.
Which LCA Software Makes EPDs Easier?
A solid life-cycle assessment platform can shave weeks off an Environmental Product Declaration project. Choose the wrong tool, though, and you swap carbon insight for carbon headache. Below we map the main software lanes, flag the hidden potholes, and show when smart manufacturers hand the keys to a specialist partner.
MKI Scores: Your Shortcut to Dutch Tender Wins
Dutch procurement officers no longer skim over green claims, they measure them in euros. A single point shaved off your Milieukosten-indicator (MKI) can nudge a bid in the Netherlands from second-best to first, unlocking contracts that run into the tens of millions. Yet many manufacturers still confuse MKI with a vague “sustainability label.” Master the math and you turn complex life-cycle data into hard-currency advantages.
Who Writes PCRs and How They Happen
A Product Category Rule (PCR) is the referee’s whistle in the EPD game: it sets the limits, spells out the scoring system, and keeps everyone playing fair. Yet many manufacturers still wonder who drafts these rules, how long it takes, and whether they have a seat at the table. Consider this your sideline pass.
Third Party EPD Verification: Your Quality Safety Net
An EPD without third-party verification is like a parachute packed by the guy who *thinks* he read the manual. Drop it on a bid and nobody wants to pull the rip cord. Credible verification turns that same document into a warranty of performance—one architects, owners, and specifiers can trust without squinting.
Third Party Verification for EPDs
Manufacturers often spend months compiling life-cycle data only to watch an EPD stall at the verification desk. Missed bid windows and frustrated sales teams follow. The good news: understanding how third party review and accreditation really work points the way to faster, headache-free approvals.
DIRTT obtains EPDs in record time with Parq
Facing urgent client demands, DIRTT turned to Parq to deliver Environmental Product Declarations at record speeds. See how rapid, technology-enhanced execution changed their game.
