Which Vaillant product families should be prioritized for first EPDs to unlock specification value?

Start with aroTHERM heat pumps and ecoTEC hybrids because they drive the most residential and low‑rise multifamily bids. Add a representative ventilation unit used in schools or small offices to cover public tenders that filter by EN 15804 EPDs.

How many SKUs does Vaillant likely need to cover with initial EPDs?

Not all of them. Representative EPDs for a handful of hero models per family can cover dozens of closely related SKUs if the PCR and operator allow families or ranges. That is usually enough for early wins.

Which program operators are most common for HVAC EPDs in Europe?

IBU and the International EPD System handle a large share of EN 15804 declarations. Both are widely recognized and support mutual recognition where applicable (IBU, 2024).

Do EN 15804 EPDs really affect bids under LEED v5?

Yes. Teams pursuing LEED v5 and similar frameworks prefer product‑specific EN 15804 EPDs to avoid generic penalties and to document embodied carbon credits. Absence of an EPD can trigger conservative assumptions that make substitution more likely.

Vaillant Group: products and EPD coverage snapshot

Who Vaillant is and what they sell

Founded in 1874 and headquartered in Remscheid, Vaillant Group designs and manufactures residential and light‑commercial HVAC systems across Europe and beyond. The portfolio spans air‑to‑water and ground‑source heat pumps, gas condensing boilers, hybrid systems, hot water cylinders, solar thermal, ventilation units, and smart controls. They operate multiple brands in parallel that cover national markets and channels, including Vaillant, Saunier Duval, Glow‑worm, Protherm, DemirDöküm, AWB, Bulex, and Hermann Saunier Duval (Vaillant Group, 2025).

In simple terms, this is not a pure play. Expect several product categories and, across regions, roughly dozens to hundreds of SKUs in circulation at any given moment.

Sustainability stance in brief

Vaillant publishes a group sustainability program called SEEDS and has validated near‑ and long‑term climate targets through the Science Based Targets initiative. Public targets include a 46.2 percent greenhouse gas reduction by 2030 and 90 percent by 2050, aligned to a net‑zero pathway (Vaillant Group SBTi announcement, 2024). Their site also explains renewable electricity procurement across sites and Scope 3 focus areas. If you want the source material, start here: Vaillant Group sustainability.

What we can verify about EPD coverage today

Scanning major European program operator libraries that architects and engineers actually consult, we did not find product‑specific, third‑party verified EPDs published under Vaillant for flagship lines like aroTHERM heat pumps or ecoTEC boilers as of December 20, 2025. If documentation exists behind portals or tenders, it was not publicly listed in those libraries at the time of writing. That creates a visibility gap when owners or design teams filter by manufacturer, product family, or MasterFormat to satisfy carbon accounting and procurement rules.

Meanwhile, demand for EPDs continues to climb in Europe. IBU reported publishing 840+ EPDs in 2024 with year‑over‑year growth, a useful signal for where specifications are moving (IBU, 2024).

Product categories most likely to need EPDs first

Heat pumps and ventilation units show up repeatedly in project checklists and low‑carbon roadmaps. For Vaillant, that means:

aroTHERM plus and Split families, often the best‑sellers in heat pump bids for single‑family and low‑rise multifamily.
ecoTEC gas condensing boilers used as hybrid partners or in phased retrofits.
Central and decentralized ventilation units that land in schools, offices, and small healthcare spaces.

If these SKUs lack public EPDs, spec teams must fall back to generic or penalty factors, which can lower overall scoring under corporate procurement policies or green building frameworks such as LEED v5.

Where competitors already show their cards

Several HVAC peers have recent, public EPDs for comparable technologies. A few examples designers will find when they search operator libraries:

Ecoforest geothermal heat pumps, EN 15804 compliant, valid to 2030 (International EPD System, 2025) (EPD-IES-0017543:002).
Galletti air‑to‑water heat pumps and chillers, EN 15804, valid to 2029 (International EPD System, 2024) (EPD-IES-0016464:001).
Vitocal 200‑A PRO heat pump family referenced within an EN 15804 EPD from G.I. Industrial Holding, valid under the International EPD System to 2030 (International EPD System, 2025) (EPD-IES-0025543:003).

Different product scopes, yes, but these listings show specifiers that credible, EN 15804 EPDs for HVAC are available here and now.

Commercial risk if EPDs stay thin

When a project team cannot match a specific Vaillant model to a public EPD, they often use conservative defaults. That can push a like‑for‑like swap toward a competitor that provides verifiable, product‑level data. On multi‑lot housing and public education work, one missing EPD can quietly remove a product from a short‑list without a debate in the room. The price tag of developing an EPD is frequently earned back with even a single mid‑sized project win, but teams only see the jobs they bid, not the ones where a product is screened out early.

How broad is the catalog and where are the likely gaps

Heat pumps and boilers appear to have the widest SKU spreads, easily in the dozens across capacities, refrigerants, and packages per region.
Ventilation and hot water cylinders are typically in the tens of SKUs.
Controls and accessories add more variants but are less commonly covered by EN 15804 EPDs.

Based on what is public today, heat pumps and ventilation are the priority lanes for EPD publication, followed by hybrid systems that bundle controls, a boiler, and a heat pump. If ecoTEC or aroTHERM families lack visible EPDs per model or representative families, that is the first place to focus.

The spec battlefield: who Vaillant meets most often

In European residential and small‑commercial projects, the frequent lineup includes Viessmann, Bosch Thermotechnology, BDR Thermea Group brands like Baxi and Remeha, Daikin, NIBE, and regional specialists. Many already seed project libraries with EN 15804 EPDs for at least part of their HVAC ranges. Where an EPD is table stakes, even a strong installed base will not shield a product from substitution.

A practical play to close the gap

Pick a reference year, pull plant data for one or two hero families per category, and publish representative, product‑specific EPDs first. For brand‑new units, a prospective EPD can get you into early specs, then be updated once a full year of production data is available. The lift is mostly about orchestration and clean data capture across utilities, materials, and packaging rather than exotic modeling. We see teams overcomplicate this step all the time, when a tight, white‑glove process is what actually moves it fast.

What to read if you are building the business case

IBU’s recap of 2024 publication volume shows continued momentum and verification capacity building across Europe, useful context for road‑mapping HVAC declarations (IBU, 2024) (IBU, 2024).
Vaillant’s SBTi‑validated targets help align internal ROI discussions and near‑term reduction priorities across product lines (Vaillant Group SBTi announcement, 2024) (Vaillant Group, 2024).

Bottom line for specability

Vaillant’s product breadth is an asset, but today’s public EPD footprint appears limited for the models that most often hit bid lists. Publishing a small, well chosen set of EN 15804 EPDs for core heat pump and hybrid families would remove avoidable hurdles on LEED v5‑targeted jobs and corporate procurement frameworks. Do that well, then scale to ventilation, and the brand can move from often considered to reliably specified. It is definately worth the focus.