New Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) on Decorative High-Pressure Laminates

ICDLI  - the International Committee of the Decorative Laminates Industry – has just published its EPD on Decorative High-Pressure Laminates.

The Environmental Product Declaration for decorative laminates is an important information for architects as well as construction engineers planning to use decorative laminates according to EN 438 part 3 and part 4 with a density of at least 1350m² for construction.

10 companies worked together with PE INTERNATIONAL to generate average environmental indicators according to the new standard on EPDs EN 15804. The German program holder IBU verified the EPD.

Download the full EPD here

Trans-Tasman collaboration on development of an EPD scheme

Life Cycle Association New Zealand (LCANZ) and Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS) are currently working on the development of an Australasian EPD scheme based on the well-established German IBU EPD system.

Global markets increasingly demand science-based, verified and comparable information about the environmental performance of products and services. Environmental Product Declarations, or EPDs, provide a standardized report on the environmental impacts linked to a product or service over its entire life cycle. However, there is currently no standardized internationally-recognised EPD programme in place.

LCANZ and its Australian counterpart, ALCAS, are currently looking to fill this gap for Australasia. The two not-for-profit associations are partnering to investigate the development of an Australasian scheme similar to the well-established European scheme run by the Institute for Construction and Environment (IBU).

Barbara Nebel, President of LCANZ, is excited to work together with ALCAS to establish a cross-Tasman EPD scheme: “It makes most sense for New Zealand and Australia to have one scheme across the Tasman, making it a lot more efficient for companies to develop their EPDs.”

The impetus to examine IBU’s EPD scheme was that 25 European organizations recently signed a MoU to establish a Pan-EU EPD platform. “The European ECO-EPD platform with 17 countries and numerous GBC is the leading one in the world”, says Barbara Nebel, President of LCANZ.

David Baggs, ALCAS President, underlines the goal, “This initiative that the Board of ALCAS and LCANZ are undertaking, it will ensure that all EPDs performed in Australia and New Zealand will be compatible with those in the EU will facilitate the export of Australasian manufactured goods into the EU - the largest single marketplace in the world with a GDP of nearly USD$18 trillion.”

The German EPD scheme, administered by IBU, is a leading force in the ECO-EPD platform and has offered their support to developing an Australasian scheme.

Turkey – Vitra published its first EPD according EU-standards

Turkish building material manufacturers are increasingly developing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). After Turk Ytong in 2011, several leading producers are now following suit in order to demonstrate their commitment to responsible production and products.

In April 2012 the leading Turkish ceramic producer Eczacıbaşı – VitrA published its first EPD according the new European norm EN 15804 for sanitary ceramic products. In this product category Eczacıbaşı – VitrA is the first company in Europe to provide such a declaration and underlines Eczacıbaşı’s commitment to sustainability and environmental efficiency.  

All EPD’s published by Turkish companies until now have been developed under the label of the German Institute für Bauen und Umwelt (IBU).

Free Whitepaper - Transparency and the Role of Environmental Product Declarations

As the world’s consumption of natural resources continues to grow at an ever increasing rate, the design and manufacture of environmentally responsible products is no longer a luxury but a necessity. From electronics to textiles to food production, producers are giving increased attention to the environmental impact of their products across the entire product life cycle. These considerations span design and manufacturing through actual use to end-of-life. Such efforts from producers are now leading towards the collection and compilation of relevant environmental data. This data helps identify opportunities for improvement along the supply chain, often taking the form of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, there are many ways to
distribute this data.

Everyone benefits when a product’s claim of environmental sustainability is easily validated against objective and transparent criteria, thereby simplifying the process of making informed direct comparisons among similar products. An environmental product declaration (EPD) is a validation tool that offers manufacturers a standard approach for assessing the environmental impact of their products and provides buyers with an effective framework for making direct product comparisons. As such, an EPD addresses the needs of both manufacturers and buyers seeking clear, credible and precise information.

This UL white paper discusses the use and importance of EPDs in the validation and certification of life cycle-based product environmental impacts. The paper then reviews the steps in creating EPDs consistent with the requirements of ISO 14025 2006, Environmental labels and declarations—Type III environmental declarations— Principles and procedures, and discusses the important role of an EPD program operator in developing and running an effective EPD program. The report concludes with a look at potential developments regarding the use of EPDs in support of product environmental claims.

Open publication - Free publishing - More building

Find more studies, whitepapers and presentations in our resource section on www.pe-international.com

Green building guide released: Understanding the embodied impacts of construction products

The purpose of this new guide, written by Jane Anderson from PE INTERNATIONAL & Jane Thornback from the UK's Construction Products Association, is to improve understanding across the construction industry of the embodied impacts of construction products.

The quest for a more sustainable and more recently a low carbon built environment, has meant that the demand for information on the impact of construction products has increased dramatically.

Much attention is being given to new ways of designing and constructing buildings and whilst the focus has been on energy efficiency and capturing renewable energy, there is a growing awareness that the embodied impacts of construction products and especially embodied carbon will become increasingly important.

What the Guide explains
Within the construction product sector, the measurement of environmental impact is not a new activity. The guide explains how the environmental impacts of construction products are measured; what processes and schemes are already established; what information is generated; how this is used and assessed at the building level and what effect European Regulations and emerging European Standards will have.

Construction products
Construction products are made of a variety of materials, which are manufactured into a myriad of products that combined together create buildings or infrastructure that make up the very fabric of our society. A construction product is a component of a building and not the building itself.

The impact of a construction product must therefore always be considered in the context of the role it performs in a building. For example, insulation makes a building more energy efficient and that function may outweigh many times the environmental impact of its manufacture and disposal.

Life Cycle Assessment
All products, not just construction products, have an impact on the environment and this impact can occur at any time during the manufacture, usage or at end of life. All these stages are collectively called a life-cycle.

Construction products have impacts from extraction of raw materials, processing and manufacture, maintenance and refurbishment, to eventual end of life and disposal. The measurement of this impact is called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). There are two types of LCA for construction products: generic assessments that collate data from several manufacturers of the same type of product to create an industry average; and proprietary assessments that use information from a specific manufacturer and the LCA is specific to their product. This guide outlines the procedures that must be undertaken to implement a life cycle assessment in accordance with international standards.

Environmental impacts
LCA measures environmental impact across a range of issues such as impact: on air quality; on water usage and water quality; on toxicity to human life and to ecosystem functioning; on impact on global warming; as well as resource use. In the 1970s the main concern in Europe was acid rain, today it is climate change. The importance of these issues can change over time as society’s concerns and priorities change. The guide provides a detailed description of the commonly assessed environmental indicators.

Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)
The construction industry has adopted a particular approach to communicating LCA data known as an Environmental Product Declaration or EPD. This has been developed to provide environmental information from LCA studies in a common format, based on common rules known as Product Category Rules (PCR). EPD have been used for construction products since the first environmental assessments schemes were developed in the 1990s and an ISO standard for EPD sets out the standards they should meet.

EPD can only be compared when the rules of the PCR used are the same and all the relevant life cycle stages have been included. Additionally, products cannot be compared unless their functionality and use are considered at the building level within a system. The guide provides examples of what EPD look like.

EPD Schemes across Europe
Many European countries have developed national LCA schemes producing EPD, these include France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries and the UK. The best known scheme in the UK is that developed by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) which since the mid-1990s has gathered information from UK manufacturing industry and amassed it into an environmental profiles database.

This database is a major component of the BRE’s Green Guide to Building Specification which is used in the government’s Code for Sustainable Homes and in the BRE’s environmental rating system for buildings called BREEAM.

The European Single Market and construction products
With the advent of the European single market for construction products, the European Commission became concerned that national EPD schemes and building level assessment schemes would represent a barrier to trade across Europe. The EU therefore sought a mandate from the EU Member States to develop European standards for the assessment of the sustainability performance of construction works and of construction products. This mandate is called CEN/TC 350.

From 2010 European standards began to emerge from this process and Standard BS EN15804 was published in February 2012 providing core rules for construction product EPD.

European Regulations and Standards
The Construction Products Directive of 1989 was one of the first Directives from the EU Commission to create a common framework for the regulations on buildings and construction products. It has been replaced by the Construction Products Regulation and is legally binding throughout the EU.

The CPR includes requirements for the sustainable use of natural resources, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions over the life cycle and the use of EPD for assessing and reporting the impacts of construction products. If an EU Member State wishes to regulate in these areas of sustainability it must use European standards where they exist when regulating and must withdraw national standards. This means that in the case of the CPR a Member State must use the CEN/TC 350 suite of standards.

Assessing the impact of materials and products at the building level
An EPD provides robust and consistent information that can be used in building level assessments and the guide elaborates on the variety of ways that this can be done. In addition a number of building level tools are emerging aimed at improving decisions at the design stage by combining embodied environmental impact data and whole life cost data (i.e. economic) and link them to BIM (Building Information Modelling) data.

The future
Across Europe, the various environmental rating schemes are seeking to harmonise the ways in which they assess products and buildings.

Increasingly models are emerging to link embodied impacts with operational data thus enabling a better understanding of the trade-off between operational and embodied impacts and in time benchmarks for different types of buildings will emerge. All of which contributes greatly to the goal of a low carbon, more resource efficient, sustainable built environment.

Download the new guide from the resource section of our website

Environmental Product Declarations in Austria hold potential for communication as standardized environmental information label

In Austria, demand for responsible production and use of building and construction materials among conscious suppliers, producers and end users has made Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) gain popularity as means of independent, holistic, verified environmental performance measurements of a product or service for open marketing claims.

As it has been reaffirmed at the EPD workshop in Vienna, major stakeholders and players encouraged by different factors such as; value chain, market constrains and growing demands by consumers, own processes in house knowledge, scarcity and supply risk of resources, profitability etc; believe EPDs in Austria are gaining favor, and will help differentiate environmental performance of products, but without leading the ranking between good or bad.

 

EPD workshop documentation

Some important examples by Austrian industry representatives were shown at the event that was taking place at Oct. 11, 2011 and can be read and download here.

Automated generation of EPDs based on ERP integrated solution

The Zumtobel Group faces an increasing market demand for product related environmental data. In this presentation held by Sebastian Gann, the response to this challenge will be outlined. The proposed solution aims at the generation of Environmental Product Declarations based on data from the ERP system.

Sebastian Gann

Sebastian Gann is Environmental Program Manager at the Zumtobel Group








Sebastian Gann will speak at the Symposium Sustainability across the value chain, Oct. 25-27, 2011 in Stuttgart Germany.

Check out the full agenda & the workshop program and register now!

Environmental Product Declaration for the International Committee of the Decorative Laminates Industry (ICDLI)

Since the beginning of this year the International Committee of the Decorative Laminates Industry (ICDLI) is compiling a Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) together with PE INTERNATIONAL. This EPD describes all important average environmental information of decorative laminates „from cradle to grave“. It supports architects and processors in chosing their material and assists the producers in improving the sustainability of their product. In all probability the EPD of the ICDLI will be issued at the beginning of 2012.

Australian Dairy study to establish industry´s carbon-cred

The Australian subsidiary of PE  is conducting a Life Cycle Assessment to establish the Australian dairy industry´s carbon footprint. The study aims to quantitatively evaluate the carbon footprint from a systems analysis point of view, i.e. farm-to-distributor´s warehouse or export harbour and focuses on the major dairy products produced for export and retail. Once completed in 2012, the assessment will identify the life-cycle phases with the highest environmental impact and highlight areas of potential improvement along the supply chain.

In the magazine Food & Drink Business, Neil van Buuren, the project leader, states “The study will generate a reliable basis for carbon footprinting, environmental product reporting and product labelling, for example environmental product declarations and carbon-reduction labels. It will enable benchmarking at both the farm and the corporate level to help drive best practice.”

More widely, it will support strategic decision-making to promote a more competitive Australian dairy industry and build the basis for sustainable leadership.

Australia is being told that it needs to increase its food supply by 50% by 2050 without increasing the amount of resources it uses. “All food production comes at an environmental cost and CO2 emissions arise at all points of supply chain,” van Buuren says.” This study is part of the dairy industry´s response to that challenge.”

For more information please contact Barbara Nebel

EPD 2.0 – Pathway to product innovation

Building products manufacturers increasingly use LCA based information for their environmental communication. This is because ISO 14025 based Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) provide an ideal format and verification structure to deliver objective, transparent information. The EPDs themselves are used both in marketing and communication and in building assessment schemes (e.g. DGBN, LEED, BREEAM).

But LCA based EPDs go even further. In the “EPD 2.0 concept”, a new way of integrating life cycle management is introduced providing a starting point for process and product optimization, product related environmental management and sustainability communication. Based on a 3-step-approach, EPD 2.0 helps you to understand the current situation and the possible alternatives, assess new approaches, drive product innovation through eco-design and ensure market success for the long term by implementing life cycle thinking into the organization and the product design process.

For more information:
UK & Nordic Countries: Jane Anderson
North America: Steve Bear
Germany & other countries: Anna Braune

First Turkish EPD according to IBU programme

Ytong is the first Turkish manufacturer to document the environmental performance of its product according to the IBU programme. The Environmental Product Declaration (EPDs), prepared in association with
PE INTERNATIONAL covers Autoclaved Aerated Concrete. PE has compiled 140 EPDs according to the IBU programme, ten European ECO –EPDs and ten French FDES-Declarations.

EPDs make the environmental performance of building products and building materials transparent. More and more architects and building designers are requiring these declarations so that they can achieve optimum sustainability even at the product selection phase. The EPDs for the construction elements comply with ISO standard 14025.


For more information please contact Matthias Reimers

First “Gold” for EGGERs Romanian office building

Egger has received a DGNB Gold certificate for its office in Radauti. It is one of the first projects to be conducted under the Austrian DGNB scheme. The building received a score of 84 % and is the first gold-certified building in Romania.

The Austrian office of PE INTERNATIONAL undertook the audit. Prior to this, PE had collaborated with EGGER to produce Environmental Product Declarations for numerous of EGGER’s building products which, in turn, provided essential support for the certification process

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe presents Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe is the first manufacturer to document the environmental performance of its products for the building envelope in such a comprehensive way. The Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) cover the company's full range of single-skin elements and sandwich panels for facades, roofs and walls. The company produces the steel construction elements in its Color/Construction business unit.

EPDs make the environmental performance of building products and building materials transparent. More and more architects and building designers are specifying these declarations so that they can achieve optimum sustainability even in the product selection phase. The EPDs for the construction elements comply with ISO standard 14025 and were prepared in association with PE INTERNATIONAL.

The EPDs document and quantify environmental impacts over the full product life cycle, from raw material production to recycling: They include direct environmental factors such as effects on climate, air, water and soil, as well as health and safety aspects in production and processing. The composition of the rigid foams and mineral wools used for the sandwich panels is examined in the same way as the environmental impacts caused by product packaging and transportation.

Major Life Cycle Assessment study for American Hardwoods

PE INTERNATIONAL is currently undertaking the first phase of data collection for the ground breaking Study which will conform to the ISO14000 series of Standards for LCAs. Life Cycle Inventory data is being gathered for American hardwood lumber and veneer covering environmental impacts of every process from point of extraction through to delivery to the importers yard in Europe and East Asia.

The study will allow preparation of Environmental Products Declarations (EPDs) for American hardwood species and products. EPDs are widely recognised as the most effective method of communicating the full environmental profile of any product and are increasingly used as a basis for materials credits in green building rating systems like BREEAM and DGNB. The study will also include, as a discrete component, an assessment of the carbon footprint of using American hardwood lumber and veneers in Europe in line with the UK’s PAS 2050 standard and the international Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

For David Venables, European Director of AHEC (www.americanhardwood.org) the decision to invest in this new Study is hugely significant for the industry and vital for its future competitive edge in export markets, in a world where green specification is increasingly informed by a science-based approach.

He says: “This is a massive undertaking in both financial and logistical terms because the Study will encompass a wide range of operations and processes. Data collection will be needed from a variety of sectors, supply chain elements and geographical regions. What we want from this Study is comprehensive and independently assessed and verified information about the environmental impacts of the processes used to extract, produce and dispose of American hardwood products.”

Boom of renewable raw materials - New presentation!

The use of renewable raw materials has seen a boom during the last years. There has been an increasing shift from an economy based on fossil resources towards a sustainable way of using resources from fields and forests. Due to the manifold ways of applications in packaging, half-finished products or formed components, bio-based plastics have a high potential in the field of renewable raw materials.

The new presentation “Life Cycle Assessment as a part of a successful market integration” (german language) from Dr. Sabine Deimling and Torsten Rehl shows the environmental specifications relevant for the introduction of new and innovative products based on renewable raw materials on the market. Opportunities and chances given by environmental assessment using LCAs or Carbon Footprints for your company will be presented by a use of renewable raw materials in material use.

PE INTERNATIONAL can help you in offering approved and well-engineered tools for managing environmental potentials and risks – for instance the Life Cycle Assessment according to DIN ISO 14040, Carbon Footprint calculations according to PAS 2050 or preparation of environmental product declarations (EPDs).

Download

To download the presentation please register in our Resources section.

GaBi 4.4 released

GaBi 4.4 was released on the 21^st of September. The new GaBi 4.4 provides assistance in documenting your processes according to the ILCD format and in preparing the documentation for Environmental Product Declaration certification.  It also takes into account social aspects with the ‘Life Cycle Working Environment’ approach and considers the effects of land use. This update was the first to be delivered completely electronically in the GaBi 4 software family and makes the update procedure much quicker, more reliable and much easier for the user. Find out more about these exciting developments here

PE Academy – Workshops & Seminars addressing the hot topics of sustainability

As part of our Symposium “sustainability 2.0 – from green to blue” to be held on October 27, 2010 the PE Academy is offering a two day workshop and seminar programme.  This will be on Oct. 26 and 28 and will address the ‘hot topics’ in sustainability.

Water Footprint, Corporate Carbon Footprint in the Context of Scope 3, Carbon Management, and Environmental Product Declarations are only some of the topics that will be covered by the PE Academy on these two days. These informative and interactive workshops and seminars will be conducted in conjunction with experts from companies such as Amcor, Corus, Masdar City, Siemens, SCA and Unilever. This will provide a practical approach to issues complete with case studies and encourage direct exchange between participants.

Join the PE Academy and learn about best practices from sustainability leaders across the whole value chain in different industries. Be exposed to cutting edge ideas, know-how and concrete solutions to future challenges.

Space is limited – reserve your seat today!

French Environmental Product Declaration (FDES) requirements

The French National Department of Health and Environment is planning that during 2010 50% of construction products put on the French market have an FDES (Fiche de Déclaration Environnementale et Sanitaire.) The new GaBi-tool FDES-CREATOR now enables you to automatically generate  LCI and LCIA tables in one click, as well as the FDES report as requested by the standard NF P 01-010 and in compliance with the AIMCC official format of 2005, format 9.7.

Sustainable buildings awarded for the first time in Austria

The first real estate projects received the DGNB-certificate for sustainable building in Austria. The The Austrian society for sustainable real estate economics (ÖGNI) prices nine office and trade buildings and one kindergarten. In four projects the ÖGNI founding member PE Central and Eastern Europe carried out the audit for the certification.

With the help of the detailed planning, PE accomplished a pre-certification of the „SPAR climate protection supermarket“ (Murau), which reached the gold status. PE continues to conduct the project and after completion, PE is going to examine the SPAR climate protection market again, according to the sustainability criteria of the DGNB certification. Furthermore, PE CEE audited the kindergarten Guntramsdorf as well as the two Viennese office buildings BIZ ZWEI and RUND VIER of the IC project development, which all has been certified or pre-certified with silver.

With the DGNB certificate, buildings are examined and assessed for their sustainable method of construction according to about 50 criteria in six topics (ecology, economy, socio-cultural and functional aspects, technology, processes and location). ÖGNI took over the proven system of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and adapted it to the Austrian market.

Brochure Sustainable Building 2010 released - Becoming a supplier to Masdar City

Are you interested in supplying products in the construction and operation of Masdar City? In order for Masdar City to reach its ambitious goals of being one of the world’s most sustainable urban developments, Masdar City encourages suppliers to find out the carbon footprint for the products they sell and join in on taking actions towards improving sustainability throughout their production processes and supply chain.

As LCA consultants to MASDAR City, we at PE INTERNATIONAL are looking forward to helping you better position your products with Masdar City as well as in the global sustainability market. Please download our 2010 Sustainable Building brochure wherein you will find information on several developments in the construction arena that should convince you that a sustainability is the only way forward for businesses who want to be competitive in today’s marketplace.