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.
Start with the legal baseline
No global treaty or single national statute says every product must carry an Environmental Product Declaration. Instead, requirements pop up in project specs, procurement policies, and certification schemes. For many US building materials, federal law currently leaves EPDs optional after several Inflation Reduction Act provisions were rolled back in March 2025. State and local rules, however, fill part of that vacuum.
Public works contracts raise the stakes
California’s Buy Clean law has demanded EPDs for structural steel, glass, mineral wool, and rebar on state-funded projects since 2021, with updated lower-carbon benchmarks published in July 2024 (California DGS, 2024). Colorado, New York, and Minnesota have passed similar statutes, each naming its own material list and cut-off dates. Bid without an EPD in these states and your product may be mathematically non-responsive.
Private green building ratings quietly mandate EPDs
LEED v4.1 hands out up to 2 points when a project team gathers at least 20 product-specific EPDs or similar transparency documents (USGBC, 2024). BREEAM, Green Star, and WELL weave comparable credits into their materials sections. Where public law stops, the specifiers’ scorecards pick up the baton, nudging suppliers toward published declarations.
Europe’s CPR reboot will tighten the screws
The revised EU Construction Products Regulation, expected to take effect in 2026, introduces a Digital Product Passport linking each building component to its verified environmental data, including an EN 15804-compliant EPD (European Commission proposal, 2024). Member states can already demand EPDs in public tenders under Level(s), so the pending CPR update merely turns a strong trend into black-letter law.
Market risk of skipping the paperwork
Contractors now screen bids in seconds using databases like EC3. No EPD means no number, and no number means your product looks infinitely carbon-heavy. In the Dutch market, analysts saw un-declared concrete mixes lose 14 percent market share to competitors with verified EPDs in 2024 (NMD, 2025). That revenue does not wait around.
A field guide to staying compliant without losing months
- Confirm whether a Product Category Rule exists for your SKU family; if not, budget time to draft one.
- Map your data sources early. Energy meters, weigh-tickets, and bill-of-materials exports beat rerunning ERP reports at the eleventh hour.
- Pick a partner who collects the numbers for you rather than firing spreadsheets over the fence. Senior process engineers have better things to do than chase scope 3 emission factors.
- Lock in your program operator during kickoff to avoid surprise formatting edits weeks before publication.
Momentum favors transparency
EPDs may not be universally mandatory today, yet the commercial logic behind them tightens like Velcro. Once owners, regulators, or rating systems set the bar, buyers treat the document as standard kit, not a nice-to-have. Get ahead of the ask and the paperwork turns from roadblock into fastest lane to the spec. (yes, enviornmental typos happen)
Frequently Asked Questions
Does every U.S. state require an EPD for public projects?
No. As of September 2025, only a handful—California, Colorado, New York, Minnesota, and Washington—have active Buy Clean policies that mandate EPDs for certain materials.
Will the new EU CPR force EPDs on **all** construction products?
The draft text says yes for products covered by harmonised standards, but final delegated acts will clarify scope and grace periods. Expect many mainstream materials to fall under the rule by 2026-2027.
Do LEED credits accept generic industry-average EPDs?
Partially. LEED v4.1 counts generic EPDs toward credit achievement, but they score only 0.5 products each; product-specific EPDs count as a full credit-eligible product.
If federal Buy Clean policies were rolled back, why bother?
State policies, private certifications, and database-driven procurement still reward transparency. A federal retreat slows momentum but does not erase market demand.
How long should we expect an EPD project to take?
Traditional timelines run 6–12 months, but streamlined data-collection and seasoned LCA teams can shrink that to under 20 weeks for a single product line.
About the Author
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.
