What is an EPD? Environmental Product Declarations and Why They Matter to Viega

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The modern-day client prioritizes more than just the cheapest product; rather, they want a
brand that offers both quality and integrity when making business decisions. At Viega, we
believe transparency in our manufacturing and engineering processes is paramount to
making quality products. That’s why Environment Product Declarations (EPDs) are an
important part of our journey. These standards are the main subsidiary of a Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA), which covers the cradle-to-grave impact of a product. Understanding
the significance of these assessments and how they work can help you make informed
choices when selecting products for your next job.

A Commitment to Transparency

Every Viega fitting is made to the highest quality standards, which extends to our
evaluation processes. Our 15 global product lines are assessed with EPDs, ensuring that
Viega is raising industry standards across the board. We have also created an internal
committee dedicated to reviewing our fittings’ manufacturing footprints. Accountability
and transparency are core principles of our manufacturing, offering us insights and
establishing baseline standards that help guide product improvements and innovations.
These also highlight our commitment to our customers by ensuring they have detailed
information on the impact of our products.

How Press Fittings Get Evaluated

There are several options to evaluate a fitting's environmental impact. While ISO
certifications follow a universal set of guidelines, LCAs remain somewhat more flexible in
interpretation. However, both offer equally valuable insights into a product. As it stands,
the order of evaluations that a product goes through is the Standard ISO 14025, Product
Category Rules (PCR) — which uses a third party to define rules for how to conduct the
LCA – the LCA itself, and the EPD – which is data from the LCA.

How Each Step Works

International Standardization

ISO 14025 establishes the principles and procedures for developing environmental
declarations. These assessments require third-party review to ensure accuracy and
reliability. In terms of environmental impact, the ISO 14025 is the only assessment that
follows a universal set of standards, making it a very important factor in legitimizing your
processes.

Establishing Product Category Rules

Creating PCRs is an important step to ensure that LCAs and EPDs across products in
the same category, in this case piping systems with connection technology, are
comparable. PCRs detail a framework for conducting LCAs specific to the product
category to ensure the assessment is relevant and accurate.

Life Cycle Assessments for Press Fittings

LCAs assess a product's environmental impacts throughout its lifecycle, from raw
material extraction to disposal. They are a great tool for comprehensively examining a
product’s environmental footprint and identifying areas for improvement. LCAs include
the following four steps: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact
assessment, and interpretation.

The LCA collects all the data that will be compiled in the EPD.

EDPs Impact on Healthcare and Commercial Projects

The importance of EPDs and LCAs extends across various industries, including
healthcare and commercial living spaces. These are two areas where clean,
environmentally friendly solutions are highly sought after. Understanding materials’
environmental footprint helps stakeholders choose products that align with sustainability
goals, healthier environments, and more transparent policies.

Want to learn more about Viega’s EPDs and our rigorous quality assessments? Reach out to a member
of our team here.