Do Industry-Wide EPDs Count in LEED v5?

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Not on their own in the Building Product Selection and Procurement credit. In LEED v5, a product earns Climate Health credit only with a product-specific EPD. LEED’s credit language still calls this a “Type III” EPD, even though ISO 14025:2026 has since retired that label. An industry-wide EPD’s main job is to serve as a baseline: for showing a product’s carbon reductions, and for setting industry averages in the embodied carbon credit. GreenCE offers LEED-specific continuing education for LEED professionals who want to work through rules like these credit by credit.

The distinction matters more as EPDs multiply. Building Transparency says its relaunched EC3 database now holds more than 250,000 EPDs. That makes it easy to find a document for almost any product, and just as easy to submit the wrong kind.

What is the difference between an industry-wide and a product-specific EPD?

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) reports a product’s life-cycle environmental impacts, including global warming potential (GWP), using a life-cycle assessment and a set of category rules (PCR).

  • Industry-wide EPD. A trade group or several manufacturers publish it, and it reports average impacts across their products. It describes a typical product, not yours.
  • Product-specific EPD. One manufacturer publishes it for its own product or products, with third-party verification. LEED v5 calls this a product-specific Type III EPD, or a “manufacturer-specific” EPD, and the category includes manufacturer-average and facility-specific EPDs.

What happened to “Type III” EPDs?

ISO published the second edition of its EPD standard, ISO 14025:2026, in June 2026. Its title now refers simply to environmental product declarations (EPDs), and the old “Type I, II, III” classification language is gone. EPD program operators summarize the main changes this way:

  • One name. The standard drops “Type III environmental declaration” and uses environmental product declaration (EPD) throughout.
  • No type taxonomy. The Type I, II and III labels are retired. Smart EPD reports that this applies across the whole ISO 14020 family of standards.
  • Clearer boundaries. Self-declared environmental claims (ISO 14021) and third-party ecolabels (ISO 14024) are not EPDs, and they are not a type of EPD either.
  • Rules for EPD software. New requirements cover automated EPD tools, including how those tools are independently verified.

LEED’s wording has not caught up. The July 2026 LEED v5 Reference Guide and USGBC’s February 2026 scoring guide both still say “product-specific Type III EPD.” The scoring guide notes that its criteria are maintained through LEED v5 addenda, so the term will most likely be updated in a future addendum.

Until then, read LEED’s “Type III” as shorthand for what the credit actually asks for: a product-specific EPD with these features:

  • third-party verified
  • conforms to ISO 14025 and to either EN 15804 or ISO 21930
  • covers at least cradle to gate

None of the program-operator announcements reviewed for this article set a single global deadline for retiring EPDs issued under the 2006 edition. Check each EPD’s validity date, and ask the program operator if you are unsure.

How are EPDs scored in the LEED v5 product credit?

The credit is MRc4, Building Product Selection and Procurement. It is worth 1–5 points for both New Construction and Core and Shell, as set out in the LEED v5 Reference Guide for BD+C, July 2026 Edition.

The credit covers nonstructural products in nine categories:

  • paints and coatings
  • adhesives and sealants
  • flooring
  • walls
  • ceilings
  • insulation
  • furniture
  • composite wood
  • plumbing fixtures

Each product gets a multi-attribute score (MAS) of up to 5 across five criteria areas: climate health, human health, ecosystem health, social health and equity, and circular economy. The product’s cost, area or quantity is multiplied by its score. A product category whose adjusted value exceeds 100% earns 1 point, so the full 5 points come from 5 qualifying categories.

USGBC’s scoring guide, Criteria Areas & Achievement Levels in LEED v5 (Version 1.3, February 2026), assigns these scores to EPDs:

EPD type Climate Health Ecosystem Health Product score
Industry-wide EPD alone Not listed Not listed No score
Product-specific EPD (“Type III” in LEED) 1 – 1
Optimized EPD, more than 20% lower GWP 2 1 3
Optimized EPD, more than 40% lower GWP and more than 10% lower in three other impact categories 3 2 5

Scores from different criteria areas add up. For example, an optimized EPD can be combined with a verified HPD, which scores in Human Health. Within one criteria area, only the highest score counts.

What does an EPD need to qualify at the first level?

At the first Climate Health level, the scoring guide requires what it calls a product-specific Type III EPD, with all of the following:

  • conformance to ISO 14025, plus either EN 15804 or ISO 21930
  • at least a cradle-to-gate scope
  • external verification

The document itself must also show:

  • a unique ID
  • the declaration holder and the program operator
  • the independent verifier’s name
  • the declared or functional unit
  • the manufacturing locations
  • the PCR it was built on
  • a validity period with an expiration date
  • a link to where the EPD is published

Where do industry-wide EPDs still help?

They help in two places.

As a baseline for an optimized EPD. To reach the second level, a manufacturer shows a GWP reduction of more than 20%. The comparison can be against its own earlier product or against an industry-wide EPD, but only one in which the program operator explicitly recognizes the manufacturer as a participant.

The rules for that comparison:

  • The newer document must be a product-specific EPD built on the same PCR.
  • The baseline cannot have expired more than five years before the newer EPD was published.
  • Acidification, smog formation and resource depletion must not rise more than 10%.
  • An independent party must verify the comparison.
  • The third level is measured only against the same product over time.

As industry averages in the embodied carbon credit. MRc2, Reduce Embodied Carbon, is worth 1–6 points for New Construction and 1–8 for Core and Shell. Its EPD analysis option compares procured materials with industry averages. Those averages come from sources such as the U.S. EPA, the Carbon Leadership Forum’s Material Baselines report and regional industry-wide EPDs. To show a reduction, though, the project still needs product-specific or facility-specific Type III EPDs for the materials it installs.

Which carbon reductions count?

Only reductions the manufacturer controls. These count:

  • using less energy to manufacture the product
  • installing on-site renewable energy at the plant
  • sourcing more local materials or suppliers to cut shipping
  • designing the product to use less energy in operation

These do not:

  • a cleaner regional grid
  • a regulatory change
  • an LCA software update that changes the dataset

Carbon credits and offsets do not count either.

What should specifiers ask manufacturers for?

  1. Ask whether the product has a product-specific EPD, not just an industry-wide one.
  2. Check the EPD’s standards, its scope (at least cradle to gate) and its expiration date.
  3. Ask whether the manufacturer has a verified comparative report showing a GWP reduction.
  4. Ask for other documents, such as an HPD or Declare label, that score in other criteria areas.
  5. Confirm how the product fits the project’s MRc4 product categories before you rely on it for a point.

The official rating system is published on USGBC’s LEED v5 page.

Frequently asked questions

Can an industry-wide EPD earn any points in LEED v5?

Not by itself in MRc4, where the first Climate Health level calls for a product-specific EPD (“Type III” in LEED’s wording). Industry-wide EPDs do feed the industry averages that MRc2 projects compare against, and they can be the baseline for a manufacturer’s optimized EPD.

What is an optimized EPD?

It is a verified comparison showing that a product’s GWP has dropped by more than 20%, or by more than 40% with at least 10% cuts in three other impact categories. The comparison is made against the product’s earlier EPD or a qualifying industry-wide baseline. These score 3 and 5 respectively in MRc4.

Does a facility-specific EPD count as product-specific?

Yes. LEED v5 groups manufacturer-average and facility-specific EPDs under what it still calls product-specific Type III EPDs.

Do EPDs for structural materials count in MRc4?

MRc4 covers nonstructural products in nine interior and enclosure categories. Structure, enclosure and hardscape materials are addressed through embodied carbon in MRc2.

Can an expired EPD be used?

The EPD has to show a validity period with an expiration date. For optimized EPDs, the baseline document cannot have expired more than five years before the newer EPD was published.

Does an EPD that follows ISO 14025:2026 still count in LEED v5?

It should, as long as it is product-specific, third-party verified and meets LEED’s other requirements, such as EN 15804 or ISO 21930 conformance and at least a cradle-to-gate scope. The 2026 edition drops the “Type III” label but not the kind of document LEED asks for. Until LEED’s own wording is updated, confirm edge cases with GBCI.

Why this matters for your continuing education

LEED v5 rewards better product data, not just more of it. Telling an industry-wide EPD from a product-specific or optimized one now affects points, submittals and conversations with manufacturers. GreenCE offers LEED-specific continuing education, with GBCI hours for LEED credential maintenance, and free LEED exam prep for professionals building that expertise.

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