The Bilbao Port EPD: an LCA case study of services
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) communicate quantified, verified and comparable environmental information about the life cycle of products and services. Although more common for products, they can also be applied to services involving multiple processes and environmental flows.
A case examined by ACV Brasil in 2020 was the EPD for the Port of Bilbao in Spain. The study considered two services: handling one tonne of cargo and transporting one passenger. It applied a cradle-to-grave approach, covering upstream activities, port operations and treatment of generated waste.
System boundaries and data
The upstream module included the production of fuels and materials needed to construct and operate the port. The core module covered fuel and electricity consumption and associated emissions. The downstream module considered operational waste treatment. Primary data were used for energy and material consumption and waste generation; emissions and complementary processes were modelled using emission factors and secondary databases.
What the case illustrates
In the version examined in 2020, the reported global warming potential was 1.61 kg CO₂ eq. per tonne of cargo handled and 4.10 kg CO₂ eq. per passenger transported. These values belong to that study, its functional units, system boundaries and modelling rules; they are not generic factors for ports.
The case illustrates how to define functional units for services, document boundaries, address shared processes and communicate results. An EPD is not, by itself, a performance ranking: comparisons require compatible product category rules and consistent assumptions.