Making Environmental Data Talk: How Environdec helps build a smarter EPD Future in SwePass
What if environmental data could do more than sit in a PDF? What if it could be traced, shared, and integrated into tools and decisions – across industries and systems? That’s part of what the SwePass project is working toward, and Environdec is contributing with long-standing expertise in making environmental product declarations (EPDs) more useful and more usable.
For years, EPDs have been locked in static formats – informative but limited in their potential. Gaurav Aher, Senior LCA expert at EPD International (Environdec), is part of the SwePass team helping to change that. His focus is on linking product-specific data with EPD data in a structured, digital format that allows for traceability and automation.
– We’re aiming to establish traceable links between product-specific data and EPD data, so that environmental metrics can feed directly into tools, models, and decisions, says Gaurav Aher.
Think of it as moving from a printed guidebook to an interactive map. The aim is to make environmental data easier to handle, verify, and act on – not just for sustainability experts, but for anyone working with products, procurement, or policy.
Environdec brings decades of experience in publishing EPDs that follow ISO and EN standards. They’re now combining that experience with digital innovation, helping shift the process from PDF to machine-readable data.
What makes SwePass unique is the collaboration across domains: software developers, industry partners, standardisation experts and environmental professionals working side by side. Everyone is contributing their piece of the puzzle.
– Collaboration is crucial. The SwePass project gives us a space to harmonise how we define and use environmental data across industries, says Gaurav Aher.
In the short term, Environdec aims to show that a digital EPD data flow can work in practice. In the long term, the goal is to simplify EPD creation, reduce costs, and make environmental performance data easier to integrate – both in regulation and on the market.
