Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Green Building Council and UL Environment are joining forces to come up with a joint Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) that can go on building materials.
• EPDs include information about the environmental impacts of products, including how they are both made and can be disposed of, and what effects they have on human health.
• The new LEED v4 system, approved this year, uses products' overall environmental impacts in calculating LEED credits for buildings.

Dive Insight:

What the two groups hope to get from each other in this deal are USGBC's understanding of the LEED system and how impacts should be included and weighed, as well as UL's credibility for the certifications it issues. USGBC said that having UL's blessing on EPDs will help level the playing field so that everyone using a given product knows what credit it carries.