Sources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; CP staff
NRMCA has certified the inaugural Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for cement in North America, covering five grades from Capitol Aggregates‘ flagship mill in San Antonio, Texas. The EPD for Capitol Aggregates, a long-time NRMCA member serving the Texas market for nearly 60 years, follows a September 2015 milestone when the association certified its 2,000th concrete declaration—by far the most of any building product category.
Developing and certifying EPDs requires material producers to conduct a life cycle assessment (LCA) of plant operations and product inputs, followed by an extensive review by independent LCA professionals. The NRMCA EPD Program follows ASTM International’s Product Category Rule for Portland, Blended Hydraulic, Masonry, Mortar, and Plastic (Stucco) Cements. Consistent with international standards protocol, the EPDs verified by NRMCA are published online at www.nrmca.org/sustainability/EPDProgram.
Established in 2012, NRMCA’s EPD Program aims to help concrete producers and allied suppliers meet requirements in new green building rating systems, chiefly LEED v4, plus standards accompanying the International Green Construction Code and Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products. EPDs are third-party verified reports suppliers, processors and manufacturers publish to provide quality-assured and comparable information regarding environmental performance of their materials and products.
Architects and engineers request or require EPDs to demonstrate reduction in the environmental impacts of their building projects. Design professionals can objectively compare the environmental impacts of the materials or products they specify against an industry benchmark, or average. NRMCA was one of the first industry groups to publish an industry-wide EPD and industry benchmarks.
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