What can be declared as additional environmental information?

An EPD may declare environmental information in addition to the LCA results of the section on environmental performance results. The additional environmental information may cover various aspects of specific relevance for the product, for example: 

• the release of dangerous substances into indoor air, soil, and water during the use stage, 
• instructions for proper use of the product, e.g. to minimise energy or water consumption or to improve the durability of the product,
• instructions for proper maintenance and service of the product, e.g. to minimise energy or water consumption or to improve the durability of the product, 
• information on key parts of the product that determine its durability, 
• information on recycling including, e.g. suitable procedures for recycling the entire product or selected parts and the potential environmental benefits gained,
• information on a suitable method of reuse of the product (or parts of the products) and procedures for disposal as waste at the end of its life cycle, 
• information regarding disposal of the product, or inherent materials, and any other information considered necessary to minimise the product’s end-of-life impacts, and 
• information on permanent (more than 100 years) storage of biogenic carbon, either in the product, in a landfill, or as a consequence of applying carbon capture and storage (CCS) to the incineration of biogenic carbon, and how this would influence GWP-biogenic results if the GWP-biogenic indicator would allow consideration of such storage, 
• a more detailed description of an organisation’s overall environmental work, in addition to the information listed under Section 5.4.3, such as: - the existence of any type of organised environmental activity, and - information on where interested parties may find more details about the organisation’s environmental work. 

Any additional environmental information declared shall be substantiated and verifiable, and be derived using appropriate methods and be specific, accurate, not misleading, and relevant to the specific product. Quantitative information is preferred over qualitative information. 

The additional environmental information shall not include LCA results, with some exceptions (for construction products, see below footnote): 

• If the EPD owner wants to display results of several scenarios for use or end-of-life stages (in some PCRs denoted modules B and C), the most representative scenario (for the geographical scope of the EPD) shall be declared in the section on environmental performance results, and the other scenarios shall be declared in the section on additional environmental information.
• If the GPI, this FAQ, or the PCR explicitly allows LCA results of alternative modelling methods to be declared, such results shall be declared in the section on additional environmental information. An example of such LCA results is the effect of considering permanent storage of biogenic carbon on GWP-biogenic results, as mentioned above. 

The above means that unless the GPI, this FAQ, or the PCR allows the declaration of LCA results following an alternative modelling method, such results shall not be declared as additional environmental information. An alternative modelling method may, for example, be alternative system boundaries or an alternative allocation method. 

Footnote: For EPDs following version 1.3.X or later of PCR 2019:14 Construction products, the additional environmental information shall not include LCA results at all, and the above listed exceptions may instead be included in a subsection of the environmental performance section. See the PCR for more information.