Ecosis co-founds Positive - The regenerative business movement

25 Feb 2021

UNLOCKING A REGENERATIVE FUTURE

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Ecosis joins the 100 pioneering changemaker businesses as founding member of the Postitive movement. It confirms Ecosis’ dedication about making positive change toward a sustainable future and empowering clients to overcome the obstacles and build on opportunities associated with sustainable growth.  

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

25 Feb 2021

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardised document informing about a product’s potential environmental and human health impact. The general goal is to use verified and accurate information to determine the overall effect of the product on the environment.

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EPD is a document that is used in many countries to demonstrate performance of a product. It is regarded as a Type III environmental label. EPD are generated through conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); which is performed using a peer-reviewed Product Category Rule (PCR) document. This PCR is in line with EN 15804, ISO 14025 and other related international standards (Designing Buildings Ltd, 2021).

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Many sustainable building certification schemes have now been developed around the world, and they almost all consider the environmental impact of construction materials, but in widely different ways. However, there are two main mechanisms by  EPD themselves, and the LCA data for construction materials reported in EPD are considered within these schemes (Eco Platform, 2021).

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Benefits of creating or using EPDs

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EPDs in construction projects and manufacturing are voluntary. However, their use is rapidly growing in line with awareness about environmental impacts. Both public and private stakeholders are increasingly requesting for EPDs. There are a number of benefits to creating or using EPDs including:

• Market differentiation: using or creating EPDs will help to differentiate between product and project.

• Regulation and legal requirements: all public procurement bodies in the EU and EEA are required to use EPDs to assess the environmental footprint of products and Belgium requires the use of EPDs if a company is performing any environmental-related marketing.

• Credits and certification: LCA credits are very cost-efficient and easy compared to other credits’ requirements for the building’s certifications and EPDs are also recognized by LEED and BREEAM, among other market-based systems.

The main steps in carrying out an EPD are follows:

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Step 1 – Collect data: including raw material, resource consumption and waste data for the product. The choice of programme operator and PCR will determine the specific data  needed to collect, based on which stages of the product life-cycle and which impact categories the LCA will need to assess.

Step 2 – Conduct a life-cycle assessment: the LCA will need to conform to the PCR.

Step 3 – Prepare background report for EPD: the background report (known as an LCA report) is a vital accompaniment to the public EPD. It provides further details about the LCA methodology, assumptions and approach employed to support third party verification, as well as the standards that you have adhered to.

Step 4 – 3rd party verification: every EPD needs to be verified by an independent third party verifier before it can be published. This ensures accuracy, reliability and ensures that the EPD conforms to the requirements of the relevant PCR.

Step 5 – Publication: Once the EPD has been verified by an independent third party, it is ready to be put into the public domain via publication. To do this, submission of the EPD document is required for publication to the programme operator, who will process, register and publish the EPD. 

For more information, on how to proceed to have an EPD, contact us on 4640455.

End of year  Newsletter

24 Dec 2020

Wow! What a year!

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While we look back at this special and disruptive year,we acknowledge the many parts that were hard, but wish to celebratewith you the positive bits, our accomplished work.

For us, at Ecosis, we embraced the challenges and went on a self-transformation journey.

As many of you, we have worked harder this year than any other year.During the few months of lockdown, we were juggling between home schooling, baking our own bread, and mainly re-inventing ourselves to adapt. As some of my colleagues admitted, we have never worked so hard.

At least it was not for nothing, and we are grateful that we were able to complete so many things this year.

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First and foremost, we need to celebrate the effort we have all put in.

The highlight of this year has been our focus on technology, especially on technology for good. We worked on three start-ups this year. The first one is a telemedicine application eDoc, intending to provide affordable healthcare when you need it. People with chronic diseases were our target, as good management is critical. The second one is a free application, a freelancer marketplace where people can share and sell their skills.We thought that could be useful.

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Then there is the promising anAngel application. It is an idea that we had for years. It took us some time, but we managed to get it out. We were thinking of doing a soft launch with our minimum viable product. But coincidentally, the timing was as wrong as the incident itself, the Wakashio oil spill. We found ourselves to ramp up our game to respond to this ecological disaster. It gave us the opportunity to stress test the app, and to carry out our design thinking exercise faster. It was so gratifying to see how the anAngel tool does what it intends to do; to use the power of the citizen to support social and environmental initiatives. Our aim to simplify and amplifying positive impact. The start of our journey saw us bagging two international awards.

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In the whirlwind, we were selected to mentor selected startups by Google for their SDG accelerator programme.

We were happy to witness some progress on some of our work. For U4SSC, two documents were published, “City Science Application Framework for Smart Cities”, and “Blockchain for Smart Sustainable Cities”. A month ago, we saw the Government finally approving the EV 10 yr roadmap for Mauritius.

We have continued to contribute on important documents. Locally, we worked extensively on the Mauritius National Environmental Policy, specifically on the “Urbanisme et PolitiqueEnvironnementale” issue. Internationally, we reviewed the North Star goals of the World GBC, and their Health and Wellbeing framework, and for Global ABC, the Global ABC regional roadmap for buildings and construction in Africa 2050.

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Of course, with the pandemic, we moved to virtual conferences and webinars. We presented at various conferences hosted in Athens, Accra, Tel Aviv, Reunion Island, Mauritius and… the cloud, on topics varying from circular economy, innovation, SDGs, green buildings, partnerships, health and wellbeing in the built environment, energy efficiency to innovative finance.

And yes, lest not forget the on-going projects! But we shall keep this for next end-of-year newsletter.

The team joins me in wishing you and your loved ones a safe and joyous Christmas and a super 2021 full of light, happiness, success and good health.

Best wishes,

Tony Lee Luen Len

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