The standards behind
every EPD.
A Type III Environmental Product Declaration is not a marketing document — every figure it carries traces back to a numbered international standard. This page surveys the seven ISO and EN standards that underpin every Global GreenTag EPD™, and shows how each one supports the document you publish or specify.
By the numbers
All published GreenTag EPDs declare conformance to this standards stack.
§1 · Why standards matter to an EPD
An EPD is a regulated artefact.
What makes a Type III Environmental Product Declaration different from a brochure or a self-published carbon claim is the chain of standards behind it. Each phase of an EPD — the underlying life cycle assessment, the product-category rules it follows, the declaration format itself, and the third-party verification that signs it off — is governed by a numbered ISO or EN document.
Together those documents make the EPD comparable, verifiable, and recognised internationally. They are why an EPD from Australia can earn green-building credits in Europe, and why a specifier in Singapore can read a declaration from Canada and trust its numbers.
What the standards govern
- 01How the underlying LCA is conducted (ISO 14040 & 14044).
- 02What rules apply to the product category being declared (EN 15804, ISO 21930).
- 03How the results become a published, verified declaration (ISO 14025, ISO 14067).
§2 · The standards stack
Three layers, seven standards.
Each standard does a specific job in the chain. Below is a short overview of what each one contributes to an EPD — not the full text of the standard, but the role it plays.
ISO 14040
Principles & framework
Sets out the four-phase LCA framework — goal & scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment, interpretation — and the principles every LCA must follow. The starting point for the assessment that feeds an EPD.
PrinciplesISO 14044
Requirements & guidelines
The operational requirements that any compliant LCA must satisfy — data quality, allocation rules, sensitivity analysis, and critical review. Pairs with 14040 to govern how the LCA work is actually carried out.
RequirementsEN 15804:2012+A1:2013
Core PCR · original
The original core Product Category Rule for construction products. Defined the life-cycle module structure (A1–D) and the first generation of mandatory environmental indicators. Still referenced by EPDs published before 2022.
SupersededEN 15804:2012+A2:2019
Core PCR · current
The current core PCR for construction products, mandatory in the EU since 2022. Expands to a wider indicator set, requires biogenic-carbon disclosure, and tightens the cradle-to-gate mandatory modules. The reference PCR most new GreenTag EPDs declare against.
CurrentISO 21930
International equivalent
The international core rules for environmental declarations of building products. Used as the PCR baseline in markets outside Europe and harmonised with EN 15804 to keep EPDs from different regions cross-comparable.
InternationalISO 14025
Type III EPD framework
The foundational standard for EPDs. Defines what a Type III environmental declaration is, how it must be developed and verified, and how the data, methods, and assumptions are reported. Equivalent to EN ISO 14025:2010 in Europe.
DeclarationISO 14067
Product carbon footprint
Quantification and communication of a product’s carbon footprint. Governs how the Global Warming Potential (GWP) indicator inside an EPD is calculated, and underpins stand-alone carbon declarations such as Global GreenTag CarbonRATE™.
Carbon§3 · Standards across the EPD lifecycle
Where each standard applies.
The GreenTag EPD Program organises the work of producing an EPD into four official tasks — PCR development, EPD development, EPD verification, and registration & publication. The table below pins each task to the standards that govern it, sourced directly from the General Program Instructions.
GPI §5
PCR development
GPI §6
EPD development
GPI §7
EPD verification
GPI §4.7
Registration & publication
Ready to publish?
A GreenTag EPD declares conformance to every standard above.
Every EPD we publish lists the specific ISO and EN standards it conforms to, the verification body that signed it off, and the PCR it was developed against. That chain of standards is what makes the document accepted internationally.