Is there an industry‑wide EPD for rubber flooring?
Searching for an industry‑wide, sector average EPD for rubber flooring or rubber sheet and tile? Yes, it exists, and it can help teams move on early bids. But the average is a conservative benchmark, so manufacturers with product‑specific EPDs often look leaner in carbon and win more specs.
The short answer
Yes. In North America, the Resilient Floor Covering Institute (RFCI) publishes industry‑wide EPDs that include Rubber Sheet and Tile, released in 2024 and aligned with a UL Part B PCR for resilient flooring (RFCI, 2024) (RFCI, 2024).
Who is behind it and how it was built
RFCI coordinates member data, applies a category‑specific PCR, and publishes the sector average through a third‑party program operator. Think of it like a box‑score across many teams. Everyone’s performance rolls up into one average, then that average becomes the reference product for A1 to A3 and downstream modules.
Regional notes: United States and Canada
The RFCI industry‑wide EPD covers rubber sheet and tile and sits alongside other resilient categories. The document is intended for North American use, and it reflects typical materials, energy mixes, and manufacturing processes in that market in 2024 (RFCI, 2024).
Regional notes: Europe and UK
In Europe, ERFMI maintains a suite of EPDs for resilient flooring created to EN 15804. Their “EPD‑7” covers homogeneous and heterogeneous smooth rubber floor coverings according to EN 1817, and the ERFMI program lists nine general resilient flooring types in its set (ERFMI, 2025) (ERFMI, 2025).
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Why sector averages can hold you back
Sector averages are designed to be safe and conservative. If your process is more efficient than the pack, the industry‑wide EPD can overstate your product’s impacts. On projects with embodied‑carbon targets, that gap can be the difference between staying in the spec or getting replaced late in design. A product‑specific EPD lets your real performance show up in the whole‑building LCA rather than an average that blurs your advantages.
Positive examples of product‑specific rubber flooring EPDs
Several mid‑sized manufacturers already publish product‑specific EPDs for rubber flooring in multiple regions. A few examples that are current as of December 2025 include:
- Roppe (US) with multiple rubber tile and base EPDs published through Smart EPD.
- FLEXCO Floors (US) with rubber flooring and sports rubber EPDs published through Smart EPD.
- Dinoflex (Canada) with recycled‑rubber flooring EPDs published through SCS Global.
- Artigo (Italy) with EN 15804 rubber flooring EPDs verified by UL Solutions.
- REGUPOL (Germany and US) with rubber rolls, sheets, and fitness tiles verified by IBU and UL Solutions.
These are not endorsements, just proof that competitors are already using product‑specific declarations to differentiate.
When to use the industry‑wide EPD vs your own
Use the industry‑wide EPD to unlock early conversations, get into preliminary models, and cover the category when you have no declaration yet. Move to a product‑specific EPD once you can assemble one year of solid production data. If a product launch is recent, a prospective EPD is possible with a shorter initial data window, then it updates once a full year is available. That keeps momentum without sacrificing credibility.
What buyers actually do with the numbers
Project teams often default to the most conservative value available when two similar products are compared. An industry‑wide, sector average EPD is that conservative value by design. A verified, product‑specific EPD gives them permission to model your actual performance. That reduces the hidden “penalty” that averages can add and improves your specability.
How to make the lift easier
Pick an LCA partner that handles the heavy lifting of data collection across plants, utilities, and bills of materials, then publishes with a recognized operator like Smart EPD in the US or IBU in Europe. The right team will keep timelines tight, coordinate stakeholders, and map your product family so renewals and updates are painless. The ROI is usually manyfold of the effort because even one mid‑sized project can pay back the work. It is definately worth getting ahead of competitors here.
The takeaway for rubber flooring teams
There is an industry‑wide EPD for rubber flooring in North America, and a sector framework exists in Europe. Those documents help you start, not finish. If your manufacturing is better than average, a product‑specific EPD turns that advantage into numbers people can actually use. That is how specs are won and kept.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an industry-wide EPD exist for rubber flooring products in the U.S.?
Yes. RFCI’s 2024 industry‑wide program includes Rubber Sheet and Tile published under a UL‑aligned PCR (RFCI, 2024) (RFCI, 2024).
Is there a European sector EPD for rubber flooring?
ERFMI lists EPD‑7 for homogeneous and heterogeneous smooth rubber floor coverings to EN 1817 within its EN 15804 EPD set, which spans nine resilient types (ERFMI, 2025) (ERFMI, 2025).
Why pursue a product-specific EPD if a sector average exists?
Sector averages are conservative by design. A product‑specific EPD can show lower impacts for efficient producers, improving whole‑building LCA results and making it easier to stay specified.
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.
