9 questions about EPDs

1. What are Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)?

EPD is an international system for calculating a product’s environmental impact
over its life cycle.

2. Why are EPDs important? 

An EPD will show where in the value chain a product has its greatest environmental
impact and where it is most beneficial to make efforts to minimise that impact.

3. How are EPDs created? 

Through a comprehensive analysis that maps the environmental impact of a product
through its entire value chain, from raw materials to waste management.

4. What more specifically do EPDs show?

The EPDs show climate-affecting emissions, acidification, eutrophication and impact
on the ozone layer as well as resource depletion and energy, fuel and water 
consumption and waste. 

5. What are some of the challenges in creating EPDs? 

The main challenge at this point is to collect the required data. Not every company
has internal ready-made structures for this. It can be a challenge, for example, for
Camfil to get data from some of our subcontractors. To create these ‘EPD structures’
is an investment that costs time, effort and money. However, as more companies
implement these structures, data collection will become less of a challenge.

6. Who benefits from EPDs? 

Everyone benefits when we create EPDs. We benefit from knowing where our products
have the greatest environmental impact, which helps us minimise that impact. Our
subcontractors and our customers benefit in the same way. As do the planet and people
in general when more environmentally sustainable products are available on the market. 

7. Who is asking for Camfil to have EPDs?

The demand for our EPDs comes, for example, from manufacturers of air handling units
and real estate companies that want to be able to see and analyse the entire environmental
impact of their products and/or operations.

8. How are EPDs accredited? 

The data is compiled in an EPD report, which is then reviewed by an accredited certification
body or an individual approved verifier before the EPD can be registered and published via
the international EPD system.

9. Does Camfil produce EPDs in-house?

Yes, we have the tools to produce EPDs in-house thanks to the independent Swedish
Environmental Research Institute which has educated us in producing EPDs. In the Nordic
region, we have released EPDs for our bag filters, which is our largest product group.
And we will continue to roll out more EPD declared products, primarily in our largest
product segment, Comfort Filtration. Our vision is that it should be just as easy to choose
a sustainable Camfil product as it is to choose the right filter size or filter class.