Limitations to the digitalisation of EPD used for the assessment of sustainability using ILCD+EPD format

Abstract Purpose The ILCD+EPD format provides a solid foundation for EPD digitalisation and is evolving to enhance interoperability and automation. This study analyses the current version’s limitations in digitising Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), assessing its capacity to ensure traceability, interoperability, and machine readability of environmental data. It also identifies key areas for improvement and proposes enhancements to facilitate integration into digital environments such as BIM and the forthcoming Digital Product Passport (DPP) under the European framework. Methods The research is based on a review of EPD digitisation, with a special focus on the ILCD+EPD original format developed by InData. Fifty EPDs representative of the Spanish market, belonging to three Programme Operators (POs), were selected and digitised using the EPD Editor and Soda4LCA tools. The information was structured in accordance with the CPEN 2020 version of the ILCD+EPD format (version 1.2) and standardised using a ‘data matrix’, ensuring that the fields corresponded to the standard schema. The results were visualised and validated on the OpenDAP platform and also compared with European experiences (ÖKOBAUDAT, IBU, EPD Norge) to assess the consistency, interoperability and replicability of the process. Results The results identify critical aspects in the practical use of the ILCD+EPD format, such as clarifying ambiguous fields, incorporating unique identifiers to reduce errors, and enabling automatic interpretation of key information to support full automation of data exchange. The proposed matrix enhances the homogeneity and comparability of digitised EPDs, allowing partial automatic reading and more efficient information management. However, the continued reliance on original PDF formats and heterogeneity among operators still limit interoperability. The discussion also addresses regulatory developments (CPR, EPBD, ISO 22057) and their anticipated impact on the new version 1.3 of the ILCD+EPD format, which has undergone a review and is moving towards European harmonisation. Conclusions This study analyses whether it would be interesting to harmonise the ILCD+EPD, ISO 22057 and DPP formats by adopting standardised templates and specific data dictionaries for each product category. In addition, it considers the potential development of automatic validation tools and parametric approaches to reduce manual intervention, increase comparability between databases and facilitate the direct incorporation of environmental information into BIM models and life cycle analysis platforms.