The Future of EPD Verification

At EPD Hub, we have been told by our critics that you can either offer lightning-fast verification or high verification standards, but you can't do both. So basically, we've been told that it's either speed or quality. But is that really true? Do we really have to choose?

Let's start by taking a look at how we verify environmental data today. The traditional approach to EPD verification is to rely on human verifiers. Now, just to be clear, human verifiers are absolutely brilliant at making judgment calls, understanding unusual scenarios, and drawing on years of experience to understand context at the sector or product level. But let's be honest with ourselves—humans are also slow. Plus, we get tired, we feel things like emotions, pressure and stress, and of course we all have our good days and our bad days. On top of that, when we are staring at massive, deeply complex datasets for hours on end, our eyes glaze over and we miss the tiny, hidden errors. In fact, this raises the question of whether purely human verification is even that good.

Okay, now let's look at the other alternative, which receives the most criticism of all—Artificial Intelligence. We all know by now that AI is an absolute powerhouse. It can process mountains of data in a fraction of a second, and it does it with perfect consistency every single time. Add the fact that it never gets tired, never feels stressed, never goes on vacation, and is always on top of its game. But (yes, here it comes…) AI has a fatal flaw—it completely lacks intuition. The moment a dataset deviates from standard, pre-defined rules or requires a broader understanding of industry context, AI just hits a wall. It simply does not understand the "why" behind the numbers. But the worst part is that AI won't say it doesn't know—instead, it comes up with some mythical answer that clearly has nothing to do with reality. So the sceptics are absolutely right to treat AI with caution, especially when it comes to using it in the EPD verification process.

So where does that leave us? Well, the truth is remarkably simple. Neither humans on their own, nor AI on its own, is any good at EPD verification. If you rely entirely on one or the other, you are going to fail. The real magic happens when you bring them together. At EPD Hub, we let AI do exactly what it does best. That is why we use it to pre-check EPD results by scanning the endless rows of data, catching the basic mistakes, and instantly flagging the areas that need urgent attention. This is the point when our experienced human verifiers step in. They take those flagged areas and apply their deep sector expertise, evaluating the product rules and the true plausibility of the assumptions. The result is a combination of the raw, unbridled speed of technology with the craftsmanship of human wisdom.

But don't just take our word for it. Because using technology for verification isn't optional anymore. As the market demand for Environmental Product Declarations and Digital Product Passports continues to accelerate, this hybrid approach is the only way forward to meet the massive demand that is approaching, without compromising on quality.