sometime i hear from the tutor that we need LCA to conduct EPDs, other times i hear him saying we conduct EPDs through LCA, so who comes first and what is the difference between LCA and building LCA
Hi and welcome to the One Click LCA Community!
That is a great question and with many terms being used it can indeed sound a bit confusing. LCA (life cycle assessment) is the analysis you are undertaking when you are measuring the emissions of something over its life-cycle. This can be a study for anything however we at One Click LCA focus on studies in the built environment, which includes for example buildings and products.
An EPD is one of the possible ‘results’ or outcomes of a product LCA study, which is the case when a product lca study is third-party verified (usually) and published on a program operator, like EPD hub.’
A building LCA assessment is a type of assessment using data like EPDs, but can also use e.g. generic data. So yes an EPD is conducted using LCA, and building LCA can use EPDs in such assessments.
Hope this is a bit clearer, if you have further questions let me know!
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