EPD: growing number of qualified LCA TOOLs

With the qualification last April of the LCA TOOL of Valli Zabban spa, an Italian company based in Calenzano (FI), for waterproofing membranes, the total number of LCA TOOLs qualified by ICMQ now rises to 20.
This is an activity that ICMQ carries out as a Certification Body accredited by Accredia as part of the verification services of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) intended for publication by the Italian program operator EPDItaly®.
In fact, the program operator’s regulations provide for the possibility of publishing EPDs of a product, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of which is generated through the use of a previously qualified calculation algorithm, called “LCA TOOL.”
This tool is defined by the company in order for it to be able to calculate the assessed life cycle environmental impacts of several of its products, which, while belonging to the same type, may differ in physical or dimensional characteristics.

The LCA TOOL is a tool that, responding to specific requirements defined by the EPDItaly® program operator, implements an algorithm for the calculation of an LCA of the company’s products belonging to a defined “scope”, carried out in accordance with the ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 technical standards and the PCRs (Product category rules) and the EPDItaly® Regulations. Once qualified, this tool cannot be modified, so its use on the part of the company (the EPD Owner) will be limited to the sole introduction of the input data required to develop the LCA study of the specific product. The output provided by the TOOL will consist of a report containing all the elements and environmental impact indicators required to enable the company to prepare an EPD of the product. If specifically provided for, The LCA TOOL can also directly generate the EPD document.
Through the qualification of an LCA TOOL, the company is therefore able to generate multiple LCA studies of its own products belonging to the scope of the LCA TOOL, in order to draft the relevant EPDs and request their publication to the EPDItaly® program operator following their verification by the certification body.

The latter operation involves a different and simplified verification process than that normally applied by the certification body for the verification of an EPD. It is in fact provided that whenever verification of an EPD is required, it is also necessary to verify the related LCA study specially prepared by the company. In contrast, when the LCA study is carried out through the use of a qualified LCA TOOL, the body’s verifications are simplified, thanks precisely to the fact that verifications for the qualification of the algorithm have been carried out previously. This translates for the company into a reduction both in terms of verification time and thus in the costs faced.
A company wishing to qualify its own LCA TOOL may contact ICMQ, indicating the scope of application of the LCA TOOL, for this purpose identifying: the type of product, the production units at which the products are manufactured, the PCRs taken into account, the life cycle phases analyzed and the main manufacturing processes modeled.

The ICMQ verification for the qualification of an LCA TOOL, will consist of a verification of the requirements of the EPDItaly® Regulations, and specific verifications on the LCA model implemented in the TOOL. In addition to these are verifications of an adequate number of EPDs (pilot cases) implemented through the use of the LCA TOOL, to verify the reliability and effectiveness of the tool in the established field of application, as well as the presence and implementation of the procedures put in place by the company for the correct use of the LCA TOOL.
The main LCA TOOLs to date qualified by ICMQ allow companies that have obtained the qualification to generate EPDs for different types of products, such as: ready-mixed concrete, cement, electrical products (distribution transformers, switches), ceramic tiles and laminates (HPL).
The list of qualified TOOLs is available on the EPDItaly® website (www.epditaly.it) in the “Qualified Tools” section, while all EPDs generated by TOOLs can be viewed in the “Published EPDs” section.