The international system that certifies the environmental footprint of products now has a new technical leader. Elia Rillo, a 33-year-old engineer from Turin, was elected chair of the Technical Committee of EPD International at the start of 2026. He joined the committee only a year earlier, in 2025.
EPD International runs a global program for registering Environmental Product Declarations. These are certified statements that show how a product affects the environment, measured through a Life Cycle Assessment.
That method tracks environmental effects from raw material extraction through manufacturing, use, and disposal. The system is used internationally. Companies use it to back up green claims with hard data.
Rillo’s rise has been fast. He graduated in Energy and Nuclear Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin.
He then spent more than ten years at Studio Fieschi, a firm that specializes in environmental sustainability, Life Cycle Assessment, and EPD work. There, he helped companies and industrial supply chains measure their environmental impacts. He helped them produce environmental reports and build sustainability strategies.
All of it, officials said, was based on scientific data. That experience made him a known figure in environmental assessment. The European Community selected him for work on the environmental sustainability assessment of products and services.
That happened when he was still relatively young. It was a sign of his growing authority in the field.
The election itself is a concrete step. It moves Rillo from a national expert to an international one. The Technical Committee of EPD International sets the technical rules for how Environmental Product Declarations are made and verified.
The chair guides that work. The position carries weight because EPD declarations are used by architects, builders, and procurement officers to choose products with lower environmental impact.
The chair helps determine what counts as a reliable declaration. EPD International is the main global program for this kind of certification. Its technical committee includes experts from different countries and industries.
They debate methodology, review updates to standards, and approve new product category rules. Rillo now leads those discussions. His election comes at a time when environmental sustainability is becoming a harder requirement, not just a marketing option.
European regulations are tightening. Companies that sell into the European Union increasingly need verified environmental data.
The EPD system provides that verification. Having a technical chair who came from the consulting side — who spent a decade actually doing the assessments for companies — means the committee gets a practitioner’s perspective. Rillo’s background at Studio Fieschi is relevant here.
That firm works directly with industrial clients. They do the calculations.
They write the reports. They see where the data gaps are and where the methodology trips up real-world application. That kind of hands-on knowledge is unusual in a technical chair.
Many come from academia or from standards bodies. Rillo comes from the shop floor of environmental consulting. The statement announcing his election did not give details on how long his term will run or what specific projects the committee will take up next.
But the strategic context is clear. The EPD system is growing.
More product categories are being added. More countries are recognizing EPDs in their green building codes. The technical committee’s work affects all of that.
Rillo’s election is international recognition of his work. It is also a signal that the EPD system values practical experience in its technical leadership.
The committee now has a chair who has spent years inside the data, not just looking at it from the outside.
