Elkay: hydration hardware and their EPD gap
Elkay is everywhere you look in schools, airports, and hospitals. Think bottle‑filling stations, drinking fountains, filters, stainless sinks and a supporting cast of faucets and accessories. The portfolio is broad and deep. Yet for specifiers chasing materials credits, the critical question is simple. Where are the EPDs, and what does that mean at bid time?
Who Elkay is and where they play
Elkay’s core is hydration and stainless. The brand covers bottle‑filling stations, drinking fountains, coolers, filtration cartridges, stainless steel sinks and a more limited range of faucets. That is multiple categories rather than a single‑product pure play. Within each, the catalog spans many model families and variants, so SKUs sit in the dozens for some lines and likely into the hundreds across the whole portfolio.
See their sustainability page for how they frame product health and recycled content, including HPDs and filtration claims (Elkay Product Sustainability).
What we could and couldn’t find on EPDs
We reviewed Elkay’s public site and common program‑operator registries and did not find a public library of Elkay‑attributed product‑specific EPDs. Their sustainability page highlights HPDs and recycled content, yet it does not surface EPDs for hydration stations, drinking fountains, stainless sinks or faucets. If an EPD exists behind the scenes for project‑by‑project requests, it is not readily discoverable online as of today.
Why that matters in LEED v4.1 and v5
Materials credits still reward product‑specific Type III EPDs with external verification. One product‑specific EPD counts as 1.5 products toward the 20‑product threshold in the v4.1 Option 1 pathway, which shortens the hunt for compliant products for design teams (USGBC Credit Library, 2024) (USGBC, 2024). LEED v5 was ratified on March 28, 2025 and elevates attention on decarbonization and product transparency that influences selection behavior on large projects (USGBC, 2025) (USGBC, 2025).
Translation for busy sales teams. If your product lacks an EPD, the team often defaults to generic or conservative assumptions, which can nudge a spec toward an alternative with a verified declaration.
Elkay’s coverage today, in practical terms
- Hydration stations and drinking fountains. Broad range with many SKUs. We could not locate EPDs for these lines. That is a blind spot on school, higher‑ed, healthcare, and airport programs where material credits are planned.
- Stainless steel sinks. Deep assortment across sizes, gauges, and configurations. Again, no public EPD library visible.
- Faucets and accessories. Fewer SKUs relative to sinks and hydration but meaningful volume in commercial settings. No public EPDs surfaced.
If internal EPDs exist by request only, making them public would materially improve specability.
Competitive pressure in the spec
Spec battles rarely happen only within one subcategory. A school modernizing restrooms and labs might compare a package that mixes Elkay hydration with competitor faucets and fixtures. Some competitors publish category‑level EPD sets that make life easier for LEED‑bound teams. Sloan, for example, provides EPDs across several faucet and fixture families, which gives their reps an immediate talking point when a credit plan is on the table (Sloan EPDs). Kohler communicates broad EPD availability by request and promotes EPD‑ready lines in sinks and fixtures, which also tilts selection when project teams need to rack up qualifying products quickly (Kohler EPD overview).
In healthcare and education, that advantage shows up quietly. The packager who can hit materials points with fewer emails often wins the day.
A concrete example Elkay could flip into a win
Take a flagship hydration unit such as the ezH2O LZS8WSAP family, a familiar sight in K‑12 corridors and airport gates. It checks the boxes buyers ask about daily, from filtration indicators to touchless activation. Without a public EPD, project teams may give preference to a competing package where faucets and fixtures already carry declarations that move the EPD counter faster. One EPD valued at 1.5 products helps a lot when the target is 20 products from five manufacturers (USGBC Credit Library, 2024) (USGBC, 2024).
What competitors Elkay meets most often
- Hydration and fountains. Haws and Oasis in public and education spaces. Both are frequent alternates in bid sets. Public EPD visibility is limited across this niche, so the first mover to publish could set the bar.
- Faucets and restroom packages. Sloan and Kohler show up constantly on commercial restrooms. They are often bundled with other Division 22 and 10 items, which magnifies the value of having ready EPDs.
- Stainless sinks. Kohler and commercial specialists like Just Manufacturing or Advance Tabco appear in certain specs. Here, a stainless sink EPD could be the tiebreaker in highly scored procurements.
How Elkay can close the EPD gap quickly
- Prioritize by revenue and spec frequency. Start with top hydrations SKUs used in K‑12 and healthcare, then the best‑selling stainless sink families. Five to ten declarations can unlock a disproportionate share of opportunities.
- Pick the right PCRs and operator early. Plumbing fixtures and faucets have well‑traveled PCRs and program operators, which shortens verification time. The right partner should shoulder data wrangling so plant teams are not buried in spreadsheets.
- Publish, then expand. A public, searchable EPD page that mirrors the HPD experience is essential. Add more families over time, but get the first wave live and link model numbers to their declarations in specs, submittals, and BIM objects.
The upside for specability
EPDs are not just paperwork. They are the boarding pass that lets hydration and sink lines compete on more than price. For owners chasing credits under v4.1 today and evaluating v5 playbooks for 2026 projects, public declarations keep Elkay in the short list rather than as a late substitution. That is real pipeline, not just PR.
We’re confident a focused EPD sprint can be done without derailing operations, and it will pay back faster than many expect. Specifers notice when the submittal packet is complete on day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does LEED still value product-specific EPDs and by how much today?
Yes. In LEED v4.1 MR Option 1 an externally verified product‑specific Type III EPD is valued as 1.5 products toward the 20‑product threshold (USGBC Credit Library, 2024) (USGBC, 2024).
What changed with LEED v5 that affects hydration fixtures and sinks?
LEED v5 was ratified on March 28, 2025 and increases emphasis on decarbonization and product transparency. That sustains demand for product‑level declarations in procurement and design guidance (USGBC, 2025) (USGBC, 2025).
If Elkay publishes a small set of EPDs first, which products should go first?
High‑runner hydration SKUs used in K‑12 and healthcare, then stainless sink families with broad commercial use. That combination touches many specs and multiplies credit contributions quickly.
About the Author
Walker Ryan is a climate-tech entrepreneur focused on driving industrial decarbonization through better data. As the founder and CEO of Parq, he helps manufacturers generate high-quality, third-party–verified carbon disclosures at scale—accelerating a traditionally slow and expensive process. Before starting Parq, Walker led over $200 million in sustainability-focused investments as VP of Strategy & Growth at ReStream Solutions, following earlier experience in investment banking at Deutsche Bank. He brings a rare mix of capital markets expertise and hands-on sustainability knowledge to tackling the infrastructure of industrial emissions.
