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.
Steel is winning the volume race
The EC3 database now hosts close to 200,000 digitized EPDs, about one in five covers a steel product (Building Transparency, 2025). That is roughly the population of a mid-size city comparing CO₂ footprints, verified and ready for specifiers. By contrast, paints, coatings, and adhesives combined still sit below 2,000 published EPD datasets, meaning a project team hunting for low-carbon primer or flooring glue has maybe one street of choices.
Why paints and adhesives trail
Steel benefits from tight industry coalitions and heavier regulatory spotlight. Structural steel shows up in nearly every Buy Clean policy draft; acrylic resin seldom does. Add in thousands of identical steel profiles rolling off automated mills, and the business case for a shared, industry-wide LCA is obvious. Paint producers juggle thousands of colorants, solvents, and regional formulations, so just collecting bills of materials can feel like herding glitter.
PCRs set the homework
Two different Product Category Rules dictate the study guide. EN 15804-based PCRs for coated steel bake surface treatment into the same declaration, while CEPE’s decorative paint PCR splits products by gloss level and intended use. Miss the right PCR and your EPD flunks peer review faster than you can say "biogenic carbon." The paperwork burden is real, but so is the payoff once bidders see apples-to-apples numbers.
Decarbonized steel sells itself
The steel sector’s average CO₂ intensity is still 1.92 t CO₂/t of crude steel, yet electric-arc and hydrogen pilot routes are already slicing that in half or better (World Steel Association, 2024). Manufacturers that publish low-carbon steel EPDs report bid wins at premium pricing because project teams can write the number straight into tender forms. The same logic will apply to zinc primers once data exist, but you have to publish first.
Volatile organics create new pressure for coatings
VOC caps keep shrinking in state codes from California to New York. When specifiers face two otherwise equal epoxy floors, the one with a verified 20-year service life and quantified GWP gets the nod. Early movers in powder coatings used the absence of solvents as a headline; an EPD turns that headline into audit-proof math.
Data shortcuts exist: start upstream
Steel teams cut study time by tapping operator-maintained energy meters and scrap tickets. Paint plants can do the same with tinting machine logs and supplier SDS files. Yes, the input list may look like confetti, but modern data-wrangling tools now scrape Safety Data Sheets in minutes rather than weeks. Line teams recieve fewer spreadsheets; everyone sleeps better.
Picking support that will not slow you down
Look for partners who
- handle on-site data pulls without monopolizing R&D staff;
- can juggle both cradle-to-gate steel PCRs and chemical-heavy coatings PCRs;
- speak the language of fast-track peer review. The right choice means you meet the architect’s deadline instead of begging for extensions.
Before bid season hits
Steel has shown what happens when an industry floods the market with transparent numbers: lower-carbon options move from buzzword to baseline. Coatings and adhesives are next. The clock is already ticking; the only question is whose logo lands on the first page of the next project spec.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need separate EPDs for each paint color?
Usually not. The CEPE PCR lets you group colors if pigment loads stay within a defined tolerance. Outliers like deep reds with high iron-oxide content may need their own declaration.
How long does an adhesive EPD stay valid?
Five years is the norm under EN 15804, but major formulation changes (e.g., switching to bio-based isocyanates) will trigger an early update.
Can I reuse steel LCA data in my coated product EPD?
Yes, but you must document the coating process impacts separately—energy for curing ovens, solvent emissions, and overspray losses all count.
What if my supply chain refuses to share ingredient data?
You can substitute conservative generic datasets, but that inflates impacts. Many suppliers now provide encrypted ingredient disclosure under NDAs to preserve trade secrets while enabling accurate LCAs.
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.
