The 3 environmental and health declaration sheets (French Environmental Product Declarations EPD)* for certified timber from the Congo Basin are now available on the INIES platform

Available free of charge from BASE-INIES.FR (reporting body of the International Tropical Timber Association), the three collective EPD are as follows:

- EPD: Congo Basin wood decking, all tropical species, all configurations (v.1.1)

- EPD: Congo Basin wood strip siding, all tropical species, all configurations

- EPD: Glued-laminated timber beams from the Congo Basin, all tropical species, all configurations (excluding installation accessories) (v.1.1)

These 3 collective EPD are the result of the DRYADES project (Life Cycle Analysis of Wood Products from the Congo Basin) led by ATIBT and supported by COMIFAC's PPECF  program, Fair&Precious and LCB.

The aim of the Dryades project is twofold:

- To produce Life Cycle Impact Assessments (LCIA) up to the port of shipment that can be reused in all markets requiring EPDs. In this way, professional organizations, NGOs or any other person or institution can integrate the LCIA data produced by the DRYADES project into their own life-cycle analyses. The 12 EICVs are available on the ATIBT website.

- Produce EPDs (FDES - Fiches de Déclaration Environnementale et Sanitaire) to enable companies to remain competitive on the carbon aspect for the French market, and translate them into English so that they become generic EPDs.

The three EPDs for decking, cladding and joinery squares were verified by an independent third party as part of the INIES program, a government-recognized program for RE2020-compliant calculations. Additional data were collected from August 2022 to December 2023, with verification certificates to be received in July 2023.

The results of the EPD’s will be presented at an ATIBT event on "Lifecycle analyses of certified woods and updated rules for contracts and uses", to be held on October 5 from 10am to 12:30pm in Nogent-sur-Marne, France, and by videoconference. 

* Environmental and Health Declaration Sheets (French EPD) is a standardized document that presents the results of a product's Life Cycle Assessment, together with health-related information, with a view to calculating the environmental and health performance of a building's eco-design. From 2004 to 2014, Environmental and Health Declaration Sheets (French EPD) were initially governed by AFNOR standard NF P 01-010, and since 2014 they have been governed by standard NF EN 15804+A1 and its French supplement NF EN 15804/CN. They take into account the product's entire life cycle, from extraction of raw materials to end-of-life, not forgetting transport, implementation and use of the product itself (cradle to grave). ESFs are thus a major multi-criteria tool to help professionals in their choices to make buildings more sustainable, with limited impact on the environment, while creating a healthy environment for future users.