How should uncertainty be assessed, managed, and communicated in Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)?
This ACLCA technical guidance provides a practical framework for addressing uncertainty during Product Category Rule (PCR) development and EPD reporting. Developed for PCR Committees and LCA practitioners, the report addresses a critical gap in current practice: the lack of consistent guidance for characterizing and communicating uncertainty in the data underlying EPD results.
The guidance provides approaches for establishing data-source hierarchies, determining ranges and thresholds for background and foreground data, conducting sensitivity and data-quality assessments, and communicating uncertainty in EPDs. It uses Global Warming Potential (GWP) as the primary example while providing a framework that can also be applied to other environmental impact indicators.
Designed to support more robust, transparent, and decision-useful environmental information, the report includes practical methodologies, decision frameworks, worked examples, and recommendations for incorporating uncertainty into PCR development and EPD reporting.
Published by the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA), 2026.
