EPD valid if I use the EPD of supplier that expired or that is going to expire

Question

Greetings

I know that this question is not directly for OpenLCA or databases, but I think there will knowledge from the community on this one.

I am creating an EPD for a product, that all of the raw materials have EPD of their own, so I can use their results.

What happens though, is that the EPDs of the suppliers will expire at some point during the 5year validity period of my EPD. What should I do then?

During my annual EPD revision, would be viable to continue using their expired EPD results or should I change raw material data through a generic process from ecoinvent?

And then, when and if they make a new EPD, should I revise my EPD again and use their data?

Answer 1

Interesting question, if you use the EPD as background data, the expiration date is typically longer than for the EPD (10 years instead of 5), check the PCR - which means you can then use an expired EPD as background data.

Best wishes,

Andreas

Comments

Hi Giannis,

If something is unclear in the PCR, feel free to submit feedback on the document to the EPD International Secretariat with cc to me.

The next update to the PCR will start soon to align with the upcoming ECO Platform Standards, but I hope we will have the opportunity to make some more clarifications to the text at the same time.

/Kristian Jelse (PCR moderator, PCR 2019:14)