EPD Consultancy and Development Services

Ekol Çevre is an EPD consultant based in Turkey. We carry out the life cycle assessment, collect data at your plant, write the environmental product declaration (EPD) to ISO 14025 and EN 15804+A2, and take it through independent verification and publication with the programme operator you choose. Most of our EPD consultancy work is for manufacturers in Turkey selling into EU construction projects, and for foreign buyers who need verified data from Turkish suppliers.

We are a consultancy. We do not run an EPD programme and we do not verify EPDs, so the roles that the standards keep apart stay apart in your project.

What EPD certification means in practice

Tender documents and buyers often ask for "EPD certification". Strictly speaking, an EPD is not a certificate. It is a Type III environmental declaration under ISO 14025, which means a document reporting the environmental profile of a product, calculated by life cycle assessment (LCA) to a set of product category rules (PCR), checked by an independent verifier and then registered and published by a programme operator.

So when a client asks for EPD certification, what they need is a verified and published EPD. Nothing is passed or failed against a threshold. The verifier confirms that the data, the LCA model and the declaration follow the PCR and the standards, and the programme operator gives the EPD a registration number and lists it in a public library where specifiers and LCA tools can find it.

Who needs an EPD

Most requests come from construction. Architects and contractors on EU projects specify products with EN 15804 EPDs because they need product data to run whole-building LCAs to EN 15978. The recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2024/1275 requires the life-cycle global warming potential (GWP) of new buildings to be calculated and disclosed in the energy performance certificate, from 1 January 2028 for buildings over 1,000 m² and from 1 January 2030 for all new buildings. Generic database values are usually conservative, so a product with its own EPD tends to score better in that calculation.

The other common triggers we see are these.

• Green building rating systems. LEED and BREEAM both reward products with verified EPDs, and project teams chase those credits through the supply chain.
• National rules. France expects environmental claims on construction products to be backed by an EN 15804 declaration (FDES) registered on INIES, and the Netherlands uses EPD data in its building environmental performance calculation.
• Industrial buyers outside construction. Electrical equipment, packaging, chemicals and machinery buyers ask for EPDs under International EPD System PCRs to support their own Scope 3 and product footprint work.
• CE marking. Under the new Construction Products Regulation, declaring GWP becomes part of the declaration of performance and conformity, product family by product family.

Regulatory status and dates to plan around

The table reflects the position as of October 2026. Several items depend on standards and delegated acts that are still being written, and we say so where that is the case.

A point that often gets missed is that the CPR declaration and the EPD are two different documents. Under the CPR, the environmental figures go into the declaration of performance and conformity and are checked by a notified body under assessment system 3+, while an EPD is verified under a programme operator's rules. Both rest on the same method (EN 15804+A2 and the EU Environmental Footprint reference package), so a current A2 EPD built on clean plant data is the most practical preparation. The first product families are not expected to fall under the new regime before 2027 at the earliest; the standardisation request for cement, for example, sets 30 June 2027 as the target for the revised EN 197-1 and EN 16908.

Choosing a programme operator and PCR

The programme operator decides the template, the verification route and where your EPD is listed. Pick it based on where the product is sold and what your buyers' LCA tools read. Most European operators are members of ECO Platform, which aligns verification and digital data so that an EPD from one member is generally accepted in other EU markets.

The PCR matters as much as the operator. For construction products, the core rules are EN 15804+A2, often supplemented by a complementary PCR (c-PCR) such as EN 16908 for cement or EN 17160 for ceramic tiles. If no PCR exists for your product, one has to be developed through the operator's open consultation, which can add several months. We check this in the first week of any project, before you commit budget.

How an EPD project runs

A single product from one plant typically takes 3 to 5 months from kick-off to publication. Most of the variation sits in steps 2 and 5.

1. Scoping and PCR selection (1 to 2 weeks). We confirm the product, declared or functional unit, plant, reference year, programme operator, PCR and modules to declare, and agree the verifier.
2. Data collection at the plant (2 to 6 weeks). We send a data template in English and Turkish, visit or call the plant, and gather 12 months of production data, bills of materials, energy, emissions, waste and transport.
3. LCA modelling (2 to 4 weeks). We build the model in LCA software with a background database such as ecoinvent, apply the PCR's allocation and cut-off rules, and run sensitivity checks on the main assumptions.
4. LCA report and EPD drafting (1 to 2 weeks). The project report goes to the verifier only. The EPD follows the operator's template and the PCR's mandatory sections.
5. Independent verification (2 to 6 weeks). The verifier reviews the report, samples the data and raises findings. We answer them and revise the model where needed. Verification time depends heavily on how clean the data is.
6. Registration and publication (1 to 2 weeks). The verified EPD is uploaded to the operator's portal, registered and published.
7. Follow-up during validity. EPDs are normally valid for 5 years. We flag changes in raw materials, energy supply or process that could require an earlier update under the operator's rules.

Data we collect at the plant

Plant-specific data drives the result, and its quality decides how quickly verification closes. This is what we ask for in a typical construction product project.

Where a supplier provides its own verified EPD for a key input, such as clinker, billet or float glass, we use it instead of generic data. This often moves the result more than any change inside your own plant.

Single, multi-product and average EPDs

An EPD can cover one product, a product family, or an average across plants. The choice affects cost, the number of documents you maintain and how useful the figures are to your buyers.

• Single-product EPD. One product from one plant. The most precise result and the simplest verification.
• Multi-product EPD with separate results. Several products in one document, each with its own result table. Efficient when products share a process but differ in recipe.
• Average or representative-product EPD. One set of results for a group of similar products or several plants. The International EPD System only allows this where the declared GWP-GHG for A1-A3 stays within 10 per cent of each included product, and the EPD must name every product and site it covers.
• Sector or industry-average EPD. Run by an association for its members. Cheaper per company, but buyers and rating systems usually value product-specific EPDs more.

For manufacturers with a large catalogue, a pre-verified EPD tool or the International EPD System's EPD Process Certification route can make sense once the first EPDs are published. We help you judge when that point is reached.

What you receive

• An LCA project report to ISO 14044 and the PCR, written for the verifier and kept confidential
• The EPD document in the programme operator's template, in English, with a Turkish summary if needed
• Full handling of verifier findings until the verification statement is issued
• Registration and publication with the operator, plus the digital data set where the operator provides one
• A short results note for your sales team explaining what the figures mean and how buyers will use them
• A list of improvement levers ranked by their effect on GWP, taken from the hotspot analysis

Cost and timeline drivers

We quote after scoping because the spread between projects is wide. These are the factors that move it.

• Number of products, plants and EPD documents, and whether results can be averaged
• Whether a suitable PCR or c-PCR exists
• Modules declared beyond the mandatory set, since each extra scenario needs its own data and justification
• Data maturity at the plant, including sub-metering and whether a GHG inventory already exists
• Availability of supplier-specific data for the main inputs
• Verifier fees and programme operator registration fees, which are paid to those parties directly
• Number of verification rounds, which falls sharply when the data is clean at the start

Why work with an EPD consultant in Turkey

Many EU buyers now need EPDs from suppliers in Turkey, and the hardest part is usually getting reliable data out of the plant. Our team works in Turkish with plant engineers, reads Turkish invoices, permits and emission monitoring reports directly, and knows how the Turkish grid mix, YEK-G renewable energy certificates and local waste routes should be treated under the PCR.

For foreign buyers, we can also act as the link to Turkish suppliers, collecting and checking their data for your own LCA or EPD. Our background in greenhouse gas inventories and CBAM embedded emissions calculations means one data collection can serve the EPD and CBAM reporting, while keeping the two methods apart as their rules require.

Related pages cover the method in more depth. See our life cycle assessment services for LCA studies outside the EPD format, EN 15804 EPDs for construction products for sector detail, and product carbon footprints to ISO 14067 if your buyer only needs a GWP figure. For a plain-language introduction, read what an EPD is and what it contains.