Ten Years of EPDItaly: a Program that set a precedent

Officially launched in 2015, but with much deeper roots, the EPDItaly program has completed ten years of activity as the Italian Program Operator for Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). These ten years have been characterized by continuous growth, important institutional recognition, progressive technical consolidation, and a gradual opening to new sectors and markets. The overall assessment is extremely positive, reflecting the constant commitment to environmental transparency and the will to contribute concretely to methodological harmonization at the European and international level.

The Program’s European Roots

The origins of the program lie in the European project INTEND, launched between 2003 and 2004 with the involvement of 33 Italian partners, including ICMQ. The goal was to fill a regulatory void existing at the European level by developing a shared point of reference for the publication of Environmental Product Declarations. At the time, no recognized system dedicated to the publication of EPDs existed in Europe. The INTEND project helped lay the foundation for the birth of Environdec in Sweden, the first European Program Operator.

In 2013, ICMQ participated in the founding of Eco Platform, the European association that promotes the harmonization and mutual recognition of EPDs in the construction sector. Two years later, in 2015, the EPDItaly program was formally launched, and in 2016 it obtained official recognition from Eco Platform as an Established Program Operator. From that moment on, EPDItaly established itself as one of the main references for the management and publication of Environmental Product Declarations, not only in Italy but also abroad.

Accreditations and CAM: Key Milestones

One of the turning point years was 2017, which marked two fundamental steps for the consolidation of the program.

First, EPDItaly was recognized by Accredia as an accreditable program. This was a fundamental step to ensure transparency, impartiality, and technical rigor in verifications.

Second, in the same year, the Ministry of the Environment included the program in the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) related to the building sector.

Both of these steps decisively strengthened the credibility and authority of EPDItaly, including in the context of public procurement. In the same year, Enel’s ‘Global Procurement’ Office contacted EPDItaly to launch a Circular Economy project aimed at enhancing the supply chain within its sustainability policy. The initiative sought to track incoming and outgoing materials, analyze their components, environmental impacts, and recyclability, and build partnerships with suppliers to strengthen the company strategy. Thanks to the support of the EPDItaly Program, Enel achieved one of its priority objectives: the development of a system for analyzing and qualifying its suppliers, which primarily takes into account the environmental sustainability characteristics of processes and products, thus increasing the eco-efficiency of the entire supply chain in the medium term, using the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) tool to qualify companies and thereby enhancing the entire supply chain.

In subsequent years, the program was further structured, thanks to the accreditation of new certification bodies—including SGS, TÜV SÜD, and IMQ—and the creation of a technical committee (Advisory Committee) tasked with coordinating methodological and regulatory updates. A further important milestone is the extension of the program to the CAM for road infrastructures (CAM Strade), which occurred in 2024, marking the official entry of EPDItaly into particularly regulated technical fields.

Solid and Constant Growth

The program’s solidity and vitality are confirmed by the numbers. While there were only five EPDs published in 2016, by June 2025 the total had reached 860, an increase of 64% compared to the previous year. The sectoral distribution highlights the centrality of construction and plant engineering: 56% of EPDs concern construction products (472 declarations), 39% concern the electrical and electronic sector (327 declarations), while the remaining 5% is distributed among other sectors (37 EPDs). The types of products and services covered by the program are now 91. Among the products with the most significant growth are concretes, which rose from 22 environmental declarations in 2024 to 75 in 2025, an increase of 241%. Following these are power transformers (57 EPDs), cables and wires, electrical panels, inverters, photovoltaic panels, wind turbine blades, and numerous other categories. Ninety-three percent of the published EPDs were verified by bodies accredited for EPDItaly, while 7% came from mutual recognition agreements.

Sectoral Expansion: Products and Services

The evolution of PCRs (Product Category Rules) contributes to the expansion of the program. To date, 45 PCRs have been published, 37 relating to products and 8 to services. In addition to these, 5 new PCRs are currently under development. Beyond the traditional construction and energy sectors, EPDItaly has extended its scope to less conventional categories, such as collective catering services, university education, and the installation of infrastructures. A PCR dedicated to the milk supply chain, promoted by the University of Siena, has also been recently published. This diversification confirms the program’s methodological flexibility.

Digitalization and LCA Tools

Since 2019, EPDItaly has focused strongly on the digitalization of declarations to facilitate their use in LCA software and BIM design information flows. The number of digitized EPDs currently stands at 1,743, an increase of 95% compared to the previous year. This result demonstrates the growing interest in the interoperability and traceability of environmental data, both nationally and European. In parallel, the use of qualified LCA tools, which allow EPDs to be prepared more quickly and efficiently, has grown. To date, 41 tools have been qualified by the program, and approximately 25% of the EPDs (equal to 215 declarations) derive precisely from these tools. The tools are used by both individual companies and trade associations, and also allow for ecodesign analyses on products still under development.

An Increasingly International Program

The international value of the program is evidenced not only by its numerical growth but also by its geographical spread. There are 275 companies that have published an EPD through EPDItaly, coming from 25 countries. Of these, 64% are based in Italy (176 companies), while 19% come from China (51 companies). The remaining 17% is distributed among Germany, Spain, Brazil, Austria, Norway, the United States, and other countries. The geographical distribution of EPDs confirms this openness: out of a total of 836 published declarations, 610 are Italian and 117 are Chinese. The remaining 13% comes from other countries. The numerous mutual recognition agreements with other Program Operators—Germany, Spain, Austria, Norway, China, and the United States—help strengthen the program’s internationality. These agreements allow for the cross-publication of EPDs between different registries without further verification, facilitating access to global markets and the validation of environmental performance