Learn About Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
What’s an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)? An EPD is a third-party verified label that discloses the quantified environmental impacts of producing a product. EPDs can enable comparisons between products serving the same function. EPD labels are governed by the ISO 14025 standard. All EPDs must follow the same “accounting standards” published in the product category rule (PCR) for each product. In the case of ready mix concrete, the product category rule was developed by the Carbon Leadership Forum and can be found on their website here: http://www.carbonleadershipforum.org/2017/01/03/concrete-pcr/
For concrete mixes, EPDs are calculated and published for individual concrete mixes at specific plants. Identical mix designs produced at different plants in the same company may have different environmental impacts based on the plant’s efficiency, the raw materials used, and the transport distances for raw materials.
An EPD is valid for 5 years. A concrete plant can choose to redo an EPD at anytime if they’ve improved their sourcing or manufacturing and want to reassess and disclose their improvements. Product improvements over time may help contribute to “points” in the LEED V4 green building rating system.
Are other concrete producers publishing EPDs? Yes. NRMCA’s website has a list of other concrete companies that have produced plant specific EPDs for their concrete mixes. Additionally, the National Ready Mix Concrete Association (NRMCA) published an industry average EPD in December of 2014 and is updating the EPD in 2016.
Why would a concrete company want EPDs? The biggest market driver in 2016 is the LEED V4 building rating system. EPDs for building products (including concrete mixes) can be awarded points in LEED V4. LEED V4 is no longer giving points for recycled aggregate and locally sourced materials, which were the typical ways concrete producers contributed to LEED points in the past. The new rating system highly encourages EPDs. Concrete producers with EPDs will find more opportunities to contribute to LEED projects.
Besides the demand from LEED projects, public and private sector clients may ask for EPDs to help them select a low impact concrete mix. Most concrete producers already have the knowledge and experience producing low carbon concrete mixes that have less Portland cement and high supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) content. EPDs will allow clients to select low impact mixes and may help clients contribute to public or private carbon reduction targets.
EPDs also provide a quantitative measurement of a product’s impact that can be used as a baseline for future product improvement. Finally, EPDs identify a product’s “hotspots” or the portion of the product's lifecycle that has disproportionately higher environmental impacts than other contributing areas. This will help concrete producers target their process improvements in the areas that matter most.
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