Standard
Product Category Rules (PCR)
Also: PCR · PCRs · product category rule
A set of specific rules, requirements and guidelines for developing Type III environmental declarations for one or more product categories, so that EPDs within a category are calculated and presented consistently.
Product Category Rules (PCR) are the rulebook that makes an EPD reproducible. ISO 14025 defines them as the set of specific rules, requirements and guidelines for developing Type III environmental declarations for one or more product categories.
What a PCR fixes
A PCR specifies the functional or declared unit, the system boundary and life-cycle stages to include, the allocation rules for co-products and recycling, the impact categories and characterisation methods, the data quality requirements, the cut-off criteria and the content and layout of the declaration. By fixing these choices, a PCR turns a general method (LCA) into a repeatable procedure for a product group.
Who writes them
PCRs are developed by programme operators through an open consultation with interested parties, including manufacturers, LCA practitioners and verifiers. In construction, EN 15804 acts as the core PCR for Europe, and sub-PCRs (often called c-PCRs) add product-specific rules for, say, insulation or concrete.
Why they matter for comparability
Third-party verification confirms that an EPD followed its PCR. Comparability between two EPDs requires that they followed the same PCR, with the same version, unit and boundary. Verification and comparability are therefore two separate questions.
Where Verdatir fits
Verdatir encodes PCR requirements as rule sets so that clauses are checked systematically rather than sampled, and so that partial compliance with a clause is flagged for a reviewer instead of slipping through.
Sources and further reading
In practice
Verdatir turns the rules behind this term into automated checks with a reviewer in the loop.
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