UNE-EN 15804:2012+A2:2020 Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

Construction generates environmental impacts throughout its useful life:

• Extraction of raw materials from the materials used in the construction of the building,
• Transportation of raw materials,
• Environmental aspects associated with the production process of construction materials,
• Transportation of construction materials to the construction site,
• Energy, water, machinery and consumables used in construction
• Use and maintenance of the property and,
• Finally, its demolition.

Buildings are responsible for up to 40% of annual energy consumption and up to 40% of all energy-related greenhouse gases (GHG).

The construction sector is responsible for one-third of humanity’s resource consumption, including up to 20% of total freshwater consumption, and produces up to 40% of our solid waste.

The sector also employs, on average, more than 10% of our workforce.

OAK has been carrying out consulting work in the field of sustainable construction since 2017. They are generally construction product manufacturing companies that want to technically and efficiently solve aspects such as:

• Entry into public contracts (Green Public Purchase), both at the level of Spain (General State Administration, Public Bodies, Social Security, Autonomous Communities and Local Bodies) and of the European Union and other European countries (France, Germany…).
• Sustainable construction certification. EPDs are essential for sustainable building certification schemes (GREEN, DGNB, BREEAM or LEED),
• Environmental management systems (such as UNE-EN ISO 14001: 2015 and EMAS) since through the use of EPDs, the organisation can identify, control, monitor and evaluate environmental performance from a life cycle perspective and also communicate the results to different stakeholders.
• Ecodesign, since with the EPD and the underlying life cycle study (LCA), we can measure the impacts of the materials and evaluate their need in the products’ environmental design.
• Business to business communication, as the EPD, are ideal documents when the client company has established environmental requirements in its purchase. For precedent, because the client company wants to certify the construction because it has set ecological conditions in its products, selection of alternatives…
• Business to consumer communication, critical in companies that are at the forefront of transparency in the supply chain and want to inform consumers of their products’ real impact.