Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) represent important sources of information in applications such as ecodesign and process optimization. However, their use in comparisons and communication is still limited. Therefore, this article aims to understand the use of LCA‐ and EPD‐information from the perspective of the practitioners, that is, professionals with experience in dealing with this type of information. A survey was built consisting of two questionnaires and two webinars, with questions related to core themes: frequency and purpose of use, comparability, and advantages and disadvantages for practical use and reliability of different presentation formats. Also, two suggested benchmarking frameworks were presented and discussed, later being commented upon and evaluated. Out of the 55 respondents, 76% stated that they use both LCA‐ and EPD‐information, primarily to fulfill requirements from customers, in environmental management systems and for marketing purposes. It was also stated that they use LCA (73%)‐ and EPD (56%)‐information to make comparisons but presented different responses and there were no established patterns as to the procedures. Methodological limitations and the need for harmonization of Product Category Rules (PCRs) were mentioned as limiting factors for comparisons between studies. Regarding the benchmarking frameworks, both were indicated to be potentially applicable in communication with consumers and between companies. It is concluded that LCA‐ and EPD‐information is used by the practitioners in different applications and that there may be a need to increase standardization efforts of benchmarking procedures in order to improve communication with nonspecialist audiences.

中文翻译：

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利用生命周期评估和环境产品声明：从业人员调查

生命周期评估（LCA）和环境产品声明（EPD）代表了生态设计和过程优化等应用程序中的重要信息来源。但是，它们在比较和交流中的使用仍然受到限制。因此，本文旨在从从业者（即具有处理此类信息经验的专业人士）的角度来了解LCA和EPD信息的使用。建立了由两个调查表和两个网络研讨会组成的调查，调查涉及以下核心主题：使用的频率和目的，可比性以及不同显示格式的实际使用和可靠性的优缺点。此外，提出并讨论了两个建议的基准框架，随后对其进行评论和评估。在55位受访者中，76％的用户表示，他们同时使用LCA和EPD信息，主要是为了满足客户在环境管理系统和市场营销方面的要求。还指出，他们使用LCA（73％）和EPD（56％）信息进行比较，但给出了不同的回答，并且没有确定的程序模式。提及方法的局限性和统一产品类别规则（PCR）的必要性作为研究之间比较的限制因素。关于基准框架，表明两者都可能适用于与消费者和公司之间的沟通。