EPD Discussions Continue

As ARGE seeks to produce generic EPDs for hardware products, the committee and its Technical Working Group have been evaluating the possible technical solutions, moving one step closer to etsablishing common ‘industry representing’ EPDs. 

During a successful meeting, attended by many key people, Working Group C discussed the 2 tenders that have been received from the  bidders from different member countries. Both documents propose alternative approaches to create EPDs in accordance with EN 15804, based on the LCAs of generic European product types.

These tenders came from earlier discussions on the 29th October, where it was agreed by the Executive Board that ARGE would prepare Pan European Generic EPDs for Construction Hardware.  Regarding the tenders’ technical content, the costs and the possible time table, the executives proposed CETIM, a French research institute to prepare EPDs on the basis of LCAs described in EN 15804. Those EPDs should become  published by an appropriate programme holder accepted across Europe. This is likely to be the IBU, because its the driving programme holder and founder the Pan European ECO platform.

Following the meeting Working Group C will be preparing a matrix identifying the key benefits and disadvantages of each tender to be presented to ARGE’s Executive Board.

ARGE are seeking to gain agreement from at least 80% of members and have issued the associated questionnaires, which are due to be returned by the end of the year. If this produces a postive result then the project could start right away at the beginning of the next year.