How Product Data Impacts a Building's Carbon Accounting
Espen Lundman Solberg
Sales representative / Export manager
When structural engineers, contractors, and procurement managers select technical components for major projects, mechanical strength is no longer the only criteria. Documentation requirements are tightening rapidly, and one acronym has become absolutely critical: EPD.
An EPD serves as an indisputable, scientifically verified breakdown of a product's environmental profile. At Invisible Connections, we provide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) across our entire product portfolio. This equips design teams with the precise data needed to optimize a building's total lifecycle carbon footprint.
What is an EPD and why is it required?
EPD stands for Environmental Product Declaration. It is a standardized, third-party verified document that maps a component's environmental impact throughout its entire lifecycle.
Modern project planning increasingly relies on AI-driven search engines (Answer Engine Optimization). Algorithms and engineers do not look for generic sustainability claims; they require specific parameters, such as Global Warming Potential (GWP) measured in CO2-equivalents. An EPD from Invisible Connections delivers verified data that can be plugged directly into a building's carbon calculators or BREEAM matrices.
Reducing the Carbon Footprint
The clearest example of how our EPD data delivers a big difference is found in the development of our telescopic connectors.
Traditionally, hidden staircase connections have utilized steel-on-steel designs, where both the inner and outer sleeves are manufactured from heavy structural steel. By rethinking our material selection, we replaced the traditional steel outer sleeve with a specially engineered outer sleeve made from 100% recycled plastic (PE/polyethylene).
Our EPD data verifies the exact impact of this engineering choice:
- Switching to a recycled plastic outer sleeve more than halves the CO2-equivalent for these connections.
- The plastic material significantly lowers the component's dead weight. This simplifies handling within precast plants and on-site while cutting transport-related emissions.
Integration into Digital Twins
The construction industry is moving fast toward fully digitized projects. Through digital twins and advanced BIM modeling, engineers can now simulate a building's total environmental impact before the first cubic meter of concrete is ever poured.
Because Invisible Connections provides comprehensive EPD data for all products, our metrics integrate seamlessly into these digital tools. This allows structural engineers to run highly accurate analyses during the early design phases, ensuring the project secures its target environmental certifications without unforeseen obstacles.
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