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EPD by Country · United Arab Emirates

EPD Consultant in the UAE

For manufacturers in the Emirates, and for Turkish and international suppliers delivering to Dubai and Abu Dhabi projects — where EPDs are specified, where LCA is already required, and what the data has to look like.

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The UAE has no national EPD programme operator, yet it has more published EPDs than any other Gulf country we have looked at. Emirates Global Aluminium, EMSTEEL, Ducab, Jindal Saw Gulf, Gyproc Abu Dhabi, Mapei UAE and a dozen others publish through The International EPD® System, and the version numbers on their declarations show they are already renewing them. EGA’s CelestiAL aluminium EPD, updated in July 2026, is a good example of what an EU buyer now expects from a Gulf metal producer.

Demand here is specification-driven. Dubai’s Al Sa’fat system makes Silver mandatory for new buildings and, through the Dubai Sustainable Concrete Baseline, compares concrete mixes on LCA indicators and asks suppliers of new materials for an LCA report. Abu Dhabi’s Estidama requires at least one Pearl for every new building. Developers such as Aldar track the share of products bought with EPDs. For Turkish suppliers the door is the CEPA in force since September 2023: bilateral trade reached about USD 19 billion in 2025. EPDlogy prepares EPDs and independently verifies EPDs prepared by others, as separate services, in Turkish and English.

New to EPDs? Start with our main guide, the EPD guide — this page focuses on what is specific to the UAE.

Why manufacturers in the UAE are asked for EPDs

Four drivers — one of them is already a municipal requirement for concrete.

Dubai: Al Sa’fat and the Sustainable Concrete Baseline

Al Sa’fat Silver is mandatory for new buildings in Dubai. Its concrete requirement rests on the Dubai Sustainable Concrete Baseline (Circular 225, July 2018): proposed mixes are compared with baseline mixes on a weighted average of normalised LCA indicators — global warming, acidification, eutrophication, fossil resource depletion and water — and a new sustainable material must come with an LCA report and dataset submitted to Dubai Municipality. The word “EPD” is not in the circular, but an EN 15804+A2 EPD is the standard way to produce exactly that evidence.

Abu Dhabi: Estidama and developer policies

Estidama’s Pearl Rating System applies to every new building in Abu Dhabi (minimum 1 Pearl; 2 for government buildings), and the municipality reported 385 rated projects in January 2025. Developers add their own layer: Aldar’s Sustainable Procurement Policy encourages purchases with eco-labels and EPDs and requires the share of such items to be tracked, and its concrete specification raises slag content from 2024. LEED v5 awards materials credits for whole-building LCA and EPDs.

CBAM: the largest Gulf exposure

The UAE exported about USD 2.7 billion of CBAM-covered goods to the EU in 2023 — the highest in the GCC — with aluminium making up roughly 70 per cent. Direct emissions of Gulf primary aluminium are estimated at 1.60–1.65 tCO₂e per tonne, but around 7 tCO₂e when electricity is included, which matters if CBAM’s scope widens. EU importers need installation-level embedded-emissions data and, from 2027, CBAM certificates. The EU and the UAE opened free-trade talks in April 2025; nothing in them removes CBAM.

The 2024 Climate Change Law

Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024 entered into force on 30 May 2025, with a compliance deadline of 30 May 2026. It requires entities that emit greenhouse gases — with no minimum threshold in the law itself — to measure emissions, keep an inventory and report to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, with fines of AED 50,000 to 2,000,000. It is a corporate obligation, not a product one. But a factory that has built a site inventory for it holds the first input to a product carbon footprint and an EPD.

Publication routes for manufacturers in the UAE

With no national programme, manufacturers in the UAE publish through international programme operators. The International EPD® System has covered the region through its MENA office since March 2023 and, since November 2025, through a Saudi licensee that also serves the wider region; UAE producers already use it for aluminium, steel, cables, pipes, plasterboard, concrete and construction chemicals. The standards are EN 15804+A2 and ISO 14025 for construction products and ISO 14067 for a product carbon footprint — EGA publishes both an EPD and an ISO 14067 verified footprint for the same product, which is a pattern EU buyers understand.

For suppliers from Türkiye and elsewhere, an existing EN 15804+A2 EPD in an international programme is already what Dubai and Abu Dhabi specifications look for; concrete and concrete products should additionally check what the Dubai baseline requires from them.

The programme operator should not be selected only by country or publication fee. The product category, target market, PCR availability, recognition, database visibility, verification route and publication process must be assessed together.
The decision method: which programme operator should I use? →

Which programme operators are relevant?

There is no programme operator based in the UAE. EPDlogy is an approved individual verifier in four international EPD programmes, including the one below — the programme most UAE manufacturers already publish in.

The International EPD® System (IES)

Broad international scope, a public EPD library and a large PCR set. It carries the EPDs of EGA, EMSTEEL, Ducab, Jindal Saw Gulf, Gyproc Abu Dhabi, Mapei UAE and other Emirati producers, and serves the region through its MENA office and Saudi licensee.

The choice of programme follows the buyer: a European customer, a LEED project, Dubai Municipality and Aldar may each expect a specific database or document. EPDlogy is not tied to any programme and recommends product by product.

The decision method: how to choose a programme operator →

How the EPD process works

Ten steps, whoever your consultant is. The difference is how much of it survives verification unchanged.

  1. 1

    Goal and scope definition

  2. 2

    PCR and programme operator selection

  3. 3

    Data collection structure and workshop

  4. 4

    Data validation

  5. 5

    Mass and energy balance

  6. 6

    LCA modelling

  7. 7

    LCA report and EPD drafting

  8. 8

    Independent verification

  9. 9

    Comment resolution

  10. 10

    Publication and update planning

EPD preparation and independent verification are different jobs

The independent verifier must not have taken part in preparing the EPD it verifies. EPDlogy therefore never holds both roles for the same EPD. Who does what:

The party that builds the study

EPD preparation (consultancy)

  • Scope and declared unit, selection of the right PCR
  • Data collection structure at the plant and compilation of the data
  • LCA modelling to EN 15804+A2 (or ISO 14067) and PCR rules
  • Impact assessment, interpretation and sensitivity analysis
  • LCA report and EPD document
  • Responses to verification comments and revision
EPD preparation service →

The party that checks the study

Independent verification

  • Conformity of model, data and assumptions with the PCR and EN 15804+A2
  • Traceability and representativeness of primary data
  • Justification of allocation, cut-off and scenarios
  • Consistency of module coverage with the system boundary
  • Verification comments with reasons
  • Verification report and approval
EPD verification service →
If EPDlogy prepares an EPD, its independent verification is done by another approved verifier; if EPDlogy verifies, it has taken no part in the preparation. This is a programme rule, not a preference.

What a supplier to UAE projects should settle first

Five questions that save the most rework when answered before the project starts.

Which document the buyer actually needs

Dubai Municipality asks concrete suppliers for LCA indicators against its baseline; a LEED project asks for an EPD; Aldar tracks EPD-labelled purchases; an EU importer asks for CBAM data. One EN 15804+A2 study can feed all of them — if its scope is set with all of them in mind.

Product and factory coverage

Specifications check that the EPD covers the exact product and the plant that ships. Family EPDs and worst-case representatives are accepted within programme rules, with technical justification.

Site inventory from the Climate Change Law

If your UAE entity reports under Decree-Law 11/2024, the site-level inventory is the first input to a product footprint — but it must be allocated to the declared product and extended upstream before it is an EPD.

CBAM for aluminium and steel exporters

If you export CBAM goods to the EU, build the production inventory so that it serves the CBAM calculation now and an EPD or ISO 14067 footprint when a customer asks — as EGA does.

Language of the evidence

Plant records in Arabic or Turkish are fine. The LCA report and the EPD are written in English, and the source documents stay available for the verifier.

Decisions to make before starting

These determine cost, timeline and how usable the EPD will be. They are cheaper to make on day one than in verification round two.

The EPDlogy signature section

Verification readiness: what a verifier checks first

“From a verifier’s perspective, the first question is not which software will be used. The first question is whether the production data, system boundary, assumptions and intended market have been defined consistently.”

For plants in the UAE — gas-fired, in free zones and on the mainland, often selling to both Gulf projects and EU customers — these are the points we expect to take the most time:

  • Traceability of primary plant data back to records
  • Product mass balance that closes
  • Natural gas and electricity consumption allocated to the declared product line, not to the whole site
  • Grid electricity factor with a stated source and year — emirate- or UAE-specific, not a regional proxy
  • Slag and other supplementary cementitious materials documented by origin and share for concrete and cement EPDs
  • Allocation in multi-output plants (smelters, mills, chemical plants) that is justified, not inherited
  • Transport assumptions for sea and road export routes, including empty returns
  • Water use reported consistently with the PCR
  • Module C and Module D consistency, without double-counted recycling benefits
  • Alignment between the LCA model, the LCA report and the public EPD

Which industries in the UAE need EPDs first

Demand follows municipal requirements, project specifications and EU exports.

Ready-mix concrete, precast and cement (Dubai baseline)Primary aluminium, profiles and façade systems (CBAM for EU exports)Steel, rebar and pipesCables and wireGypsum boards and insulationConstruction chemicals, paints and waterproofingGlass and ceramicsFertilisers and petrochemicals (CBAM, product carbon footprint)

How long does an EPD project take in practice?

It depends on product complexity, the number of sites and products, data readiness, PCR availability, the programme operator’s process and how quickly questions are answered on both sides.

UAE projects run on tender deadlines, and that is where EPD timelines break: a declaration cannot be verified in a week because a bid closes on Thursday. Each verification round typically takes one to two weeks and two to three rounds are common; a well-prepared single-site study needs around two months from data collection to publication. Start before the tender, not during it.

The general process model: how long does an EPD take? →

Mistakes we expect to see in UAE EPD projects

  • Starting the EPD when the tender is already open
  • Producing an EPD for Dubai concrete without checking what the baseline comparison actually needs
  • Using the Climate Change Law site inventory as the product inventory without allocation
  • Collecting data before selecting the PCR — then collecting it again
  • Grid electricity modelled with a regional proxy instead of a UAE-specific factor
  • Ignoring empty transport returns on export routes
  • Mixing Module C flows with Module D benefits
  • Publishing results that do not match the LCA report

Why work with EPDlogy for the UAE

Frequently asked questions

Is there an EPD programme operator in the UAE?

No national one. UAE manufacturers publish through international programmes — most of them through The International EPD® System, which serves the region through its MENA office and, since November 2025, a Saudi licensee. More than fifteen UAE producers already have EPDs in its library.

Is an EPD mandatory in the UAE?

Not as such. But Dubai’s Sustainable Concrete Baseline requires concrete mixes to be compared on LCA indicators and new materials to come with an LCA report, Estidama and Al Sa’fat apply to every new building, and developers such as Aldar track EPD-labelled purchases. The 2024 Climate Change Law obliges entities to report greenhouse gas emissions; it does not require product declarations.

Does Al Sa’fat require EPDs?

The published Al Sa’fat text does not use the word EPD. Its concrete requirement, however, rests on the Dubai Sustainable Concrete Baseline, which compares mixes on normalised LCA indicators and asks suppliers of new sustainable materials for an LCA report and dataset. An EN 15804+A2 EPD is the standard way to produce that evidence.

We are a Turkish manufacturer with an existing EPD. Can we use it in UAE projects?

In principle yes: an EN 15804+A2 EPD published through an international programme is what LEED projects and developer policies look for. Check that the EPD is still valid, that it covers the product and factory actually supplied, and what the specific project or municipality asks for — Dubai concrete has its own baseline comparison.

We export aluminium or steel to the EU. Do we need an EPD or CBAM data?

CBAM data first — your EU importer is legally required to report embedded emissions and, from 2027, to surrender certificates; without verified actual data, default values apply. An EPD is not required for CBAM. But both are built from the same production inventory, so one data structure can serve the CBAM calculation now and an EPD or ISO 14067 footprint when a customer asks — EGA publishes both for the same product.

Which programme operator should a UAE manufacturer choose?

It depends on the product category and where your customers look for data. With no national programme, the question is which international programme has a PCR for your product and recognition with your buyers. EPDlogy is not tied to any programme and assesses this product by product.

Does an EPD prove a product is environmentally friendly?

No. An EPD reports verified environmental information according to defined rules. It does not certify that a product is green, sustainable or better than alternatives — and marketing it that way creates risk. Its value is that buyers, certifiers and regulators can trust the numbers.

Manufacturing in the UAE — or supplying projects there?

EPDlogy can map the route: what Dubai or Abu Dhabi actually require from your product, which of your products face CBAM, what data the plant has to prepare, and which programme fits. EPD preparation and independent verification are provided as separate services, in accordance with independence requirements.

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Sources

Country-specific statements on this page are based on the following sources, checked in October 2026. Regulations evolve — always confirm current requirements for your product and market.