Environmental Product Declarations

Your sales team keeps hearing "send the EPD" and the conversation dies there.

Five states now require EPDs to bid on public construction projects. LEED v5 makes them a prerequisite. No EPD means your product is non-responsive before price is even discussed.

5
States with active
Buy Clean mandates
$6K
Caltrans withhold per
missing EPD
50/day
New EPDs filed in
2025 alone
!
Minnesota manufacturers: Projects advertised after July 15, 2026 require facility-specific EPDs. No exceptions. That's less than 5 months away.
The Regulatory Reality

No EPD, no bid. It's already happening.

These aren't future proposals. They're active contract requirements. Miss the EPD and your bid is marked non-responsive. There is no waiver process.

State
Active Since
Consequence
California
2021 (structural steel, rebar, glass)
Bid non-responsive + $6K withhold
Colorado
January 2024 (7 material categories)
Contract breach
New York
January 2025 (concrete)
Material cannot be used
Washington
July 2025 (90% spend coverage)
EPD submission required at bid
Minnesota
July 2026 (GWP limits)
Bid non-responsive

LEED v5 (certification open since November 2025) now treats embodied carbon as a prerequisite, not optional credits. Products without EPDs can't contribute to the prerequisite. Architects chasing certification targets will drop EPD-less products from the spec before they even check your price.

The funding that disappeared

In 2024, the EPA created the C-MORE program: $160 million in grants specifically to help manufacturers afford EPDs. 38 organizations were selected. Then in March 2025, $116 million in grants were terminated.

The mandate didn't go away. Just the help. Manufacturers who were counting on grant funding to cover EPD costs now need to find another way.

The Cost Problem

EPDs cost more than most small manufacturers can justify.

Traditional LCA consultants charge $17K-$55K per product. The process takes 3-6 months. For a manufacturer with 5 product lines, that's a six-figure investment. No wonder 92% of cement and concrete establishments under 50 employees still don't have product-specific EPDs.

Traditional EPD Services
$17K-$55K
Per product. Plus 3-6 months of your team's time gathering data. Plus $5,000 in hidden internal labor costs.
What I'd Like to Offer
$5K-$8K
Per product. Done-for-you. Structured intake process to minimize your team's time. Target: 6 weeks to published EPD.

For context: manufacturers already pay $5K-$8K for ISO 14001 environmental certification. An EPD is a similar compliance credential, in a similar budget range, that directly unlocks bid eligibility.

What This Could Look Like

A done-for-you EPD service built for manufacturers under 100 employees.

The technical work, the LCA modeling, the PCR interpretation, the verifier coordination. All handled. You provide your product data. You get a published, verified EPD.

  1. Structured data intake
    A questionnaire designed for manufacturers, not LCA experts. Bill of materials, energy consumption, transport data. Clear, specific questions. No jargon.
  2. LCA modeling
    AI-assisted life cycle assessment against ecoinvent and USLCI databases. Impact assessment per ISO 14044, following your product's applicable Product Category Rules.
  3. EPD drafting and expert review
    Auto-generated EPD document reviewed by a certified LCA professional for methodology and allocation decisions.
  4. Verification and publication
    Submitted to a program operator for third-party verification. Published EPD valid for 5 years.
This service doesn't exist yet. I want to build it, and I want to build the right version of it. That's why I'm looking to talk to manufacturers who are facing this problem right now. Your input determines what gets built.

Is this relevant to you?

This is for you if:

  • You manufacture building materials (concrete, masonry, insulation, coatings, roofing, flooring, wood products)
  • You sell into public construction in CA, CO, NY, MN, or WA
  • Architects or contractors have asked you for an EPD
  • You've looked at EPD costs and can't justify $17K+ per product
  • You've been bidding on LEED projects and losing points on materials transparency

Probably not for you if:

  • Your products already have current EPDs
  • You're over $100M revenue (traditional consultants make more sense at your scale)
  • You only sell into private residential with no LEED or government exposure
  • Your product category has a usable industry-wide EPD (e.g., standard ready-mix through NRMCA)
Who's Behind This
Christo Wilken

I'm Christo Wilken, a tech consultant based in Germany. I build AI-assisted automation for businesses with compliance-heavy workflows.

I started looking at the EPD space after seeing the same pattern repeat: regulations tightening, costs staying high, and small manufacturers getting locked out of contracts they're perfectly qualified to win. I've studied the Buy Clean mandates, analyzed what the current EPD service providers charge and who they actually serve, and read through the forums where LCA practitioners discuss real project costs.

The gap is clear. Traditional consultants serve large manufacturers at $17K-$55K. Self-service LCA software requires expertise you don't have on staff. There's nothing in between for a 30-person company that just needs one or two verified EPDs to keep bidding.

I'd like to build that missing service. But the right version comes from talking to people who are actually facing this problem. If that's you, I'd welcome a conversation.

Get a Free EPD Cost Assessment

Tell me about your product. I'll tell you what an EPD would cost and how fast.

No commitment. I'll review your situation and send you an honest assessment of what it would take to get your first EPD published.

I'll respond within 2 business days with an honest assessment. No sales pitch.
or
Book a 20-minute conversation directly

Got it. I'll be in touch.

I'll review your information and send you an honest EPD cost assessment within 2 business days.