â UL Environment Inc., a subsidiary of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), says it will launch an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Program in January 2011.
The EPD will cover building products, lighting and textiles, intended as a comprehensive, globally recognized, and "scientifically robust mechanism to consistently evaluate environmental claims on products, equivalent to a sustainability 'nutrition label,'â UL Environment says. /Get UL Environment Brochure.pdf
In announcing UL Environment's EPD, UL cites the impact the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system had had in green building over the past 10 years. A study conducted for UL Environment by sustainability consulting firm MindClick SGM found that 90 percent of architects and designers have researched, specified or purchased green products in the past year.
UL Environment says its EPD is the documentation of an audited Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the environmental performance of a product, based on approved Product Category Rules (PCRs) in accordance with ISO 14025 guidelines. UL Environment says its EPD program provides the structure and global scale necessary to support comparative cradle-to-grave assessments of products.
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