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.
Your Website: Home Base, Not Hobbit Hole
Place the PDF or digital EPD on the product page, a dedicated sustainability hub, and your global footer. Four slow clicks will lose 73 percent of architects who will jump to a rival site instead (AIA, 2024). Name the file clearly (Product-Name_EPD_EN15804.pdf) so Google finds it.
Program Operator Libraries Still Matter
Smart EPD, IBU, UL SPOT, and Environdec remain first-stop proof points for specifiers asked to verify compliance. These registries boost credibility because each entry sits behind third-party review. Upload promptly once the operator issues the registration number, then link the public page from your site.
National Eco Databases Feed Public Projects
ÖKOBAUDAT in Germany, INIES in France, and ECO Platform’s ECO Portal syndicate data into government procurement tools. If you sell across borders, listing here can tick a tender box before your sales team even hears about the bid. Submission formats differ, so budget a few hours for each upload.
Get Digitized Inside EC3
The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator houses more than 157,000 digitized EPDs as of November 2024 (Building Transparency, 2024). Designers use its filters during early carbon benchmarking, long before they call suppliers. Digitization takes minutes once you have a valid JSON or XML file.
BIM Object Portals Are the New Shelf Space
Drop your EPD into BIMsmith, NBS Source, or BIMobject alongside the 3D model. When someone drags the object into Revit, the declaration rides along. That shortcut often decides who makes the spec list.
Distributor and Marketplace Listings
Major distributors now tag products with EPD icons. Submit updated certificates to their content teams so your badge shows up in search filters. One missing upload and you vanish from the “low carbon” results set.
Add Structured Data for Search Bots
Schema.org’s Product markup lets you embed a certification property that points to the EPD URL. Early tests show clicks increasing by 12 percent in search snippets on technical terms (internal pilot, 2025). No code? A lightweight plugin handles it.
Make Discovery Frictionless
Publish everywhere buyers already look, cross-link the locations, and keep file names plain English. The EPD then works like an always-on salesperson, guiding specifiers toward your product while you sleep.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the single most important place to host an EPD?
Your own product page, because 89 percent of architects expect to find certifications there first (ArchDaily, 2024).
Should I still upload to operator libraries if the file is on my website?
Yes. Operator libraries provide third-party credibility and satisfy formal tender checks, while your site serves early-stage research.
How long does EC3 digitization usually take?
If your declaration is already machine-readable, the EC3 upload wizard takes under ten minutes (Building Transparency, 2024).
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.
