{"id":5241,"date":"2014-09-05T16:05:35","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T20:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.constructionspecifier.com\/?p=5241"},"modified":"2017-01-13T14:16:18","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T19:16:18","slug":"environmental-product-declarations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionspecifier.com\/environmental-product-declarations\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding environmental product declarations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>
This is an excerpt of an environmental product declaration (EPD) transparency brief for sprayed polyurethane foam (SPF) from the Spray Polyurethane Foam Alliance (SPFA), filed with EPD program operator Underwriters Laboratory (UL) Environment.<\/span> Image courtesy SPFA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Paul Bertram, FCSI, CDT, LEED AP, GGP
\n<\/strong>Buildings designed with energy efficiency in mind are becoming the norm. <\/a>In fact, according to a 2013 McGraw-Hill study, \u201cfirms are shifting their business toward green building, with 51 percent of respondents planning more than 60 percent of their work to be green by 2015.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup> As a result, design\/construction professionals are constantly seeking methods to verify the \u2018greenness\u2019 of buildings.<\/p>\n

One increasingly popular strategy to confirm energy efficiency is to use an environmental product declaration (EPD) as a way to help decision-makers evaluate and specify products with a low environmental footprint. EPDs are based on industry product category rules (PCRs), themselves developed to use environmental lifecycle assessment (LCA) data based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14040, Environmental Management\u2013Lifecycle Assessment: Principles and Framework<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In an article that appeared in the March 2013 issue of The Construction Specifier<\/em><\/a>, Julie Rapoport, PhD, LEED AP, described the EPD as:<\/p>\n

a document created by the manufacturer to show results of a lifecycle assessment. It is verified by an expert and approved by a program operator, such as UL Environment (ULE) or the aforementioned MTS [the Institute for the Market Transformation to Sustainability]. \u2026EPDs can have requirements for how often they must be renewed. For example, SMaRT EPDs used by this author\u2019s firm must be renewed every three years. During the renewal process, aspects like energy input can be revisited and updated.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, EPDs report a summary of the environmental impacts of a product across its entire lifecycle, including impacts from the manufacturing process and upstream supplied materials. To reflect a product\u2019s overall environmental impact, an EPD takes into account the energy use and environmental impact of all phases of a product\u2019s life\u2014from raw material extraction to end-of-life.<\/p>\n

The EPD also provides detailed and verified data for multiple attributes of a given product such as durability, maintenance costs, use phase performance, demolition, and end-of-life disposition. This data allows construction professionals to learn about a product based on its cradle-to-gate\/grave impacts.<\/p>\n

However, having an EPD alone does not make a product \u2018green;\u2019 it is also not a statement of environmental superiority. Rather, an EPD provides documentation of lifecycle and other related data for a given product system. This allows the entire building team to compare similar products and\/or additional EPDs of a similar product system, gaining a better understanding of trade-offs and product system improvement.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An excerpt of an industry-wide EPD for insulated metal panels from the Metal Construction Association (MCA) for SPF from the SPFA, filed with EPD program operator UL Environment. <\/span>Image courtesy MCA<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EPDs and better buildings<\/strong>
\nAs EPDs are used more frequently to understand the environmental impacts of building products, their affect on buildings\u2019 overall environmental contribution becomes clearer. An EPD displays statistics about environmental impacts, providing construction professionals with third-party verified reporting information about products they would like to use, allowing them to make more informed decisions. With more products being verified through the EPD process, specifiers, architects, and building owners are better able to understand the environmental footprint of their buildings by reviewing other EPDs or performing more detailed product analyses according to ISO 14044 standards.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, this means EPDs serve a vital role. The higher the quality of information a specifier or architect has when drafting a building design, the more material-efficient and less environmentally impactful a building can be. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has acknowledged EPDs can help document the impacts of building materials. As a result, many industry professionals are calling for the incorporation of EPDs into green building codes. In response, various green building system organizations have incorporated, or are considering, EPDs as an option in their standards and recommendations.<\/p>\n

How to use EPDs<\/strong>
\nFor practical purposes, EPDs can be divided into two categories: product-specific and industry-wide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Product-specific EPDs are completed for particular products. This type of EPD is valuable if clients or building owners want to use specific materials in a building project. Typically, the company or corporation producing the product funds the development of a product-specific EPD.<\/p>\n

The industry-wide EPDs are based on an aggregated average of similar materials or products within a sector. <\/a>For example, the Metal Construction Association (MCA) issued three industry-wide EPDs for insulated metal panels (IMPs), metal composite material (MCM) panels, and roll-formed steel panels for roofs and walls.2<\/a><\/sup> This category of EPD is especially valuable to specifiers interested in choosing a generic category of product\u2014such as sprayed polyurethane foam (SPF)\u2014rather than requiring the use of proprietary materials.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the type, EPDs are developed under ISO 14025, Environmental Labels and Declarations\u2013Type III Environmental Declarations: Principles and Procedures<\/em>, which define the process of developing an EPD, including the crafting of product category rules and verification requirements by program operators.<\/p>\n

Program operators have working knowledge of the elements required by an EPD, such as:<\/p>\n