Global Cement and Concrete Association’s Environmental Product Declaration tool updated and relaunched – enabling low carbon design and construction

(London: 16^th December TBC) – The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has today announced the global verification of its Environmental Product Declaration(EPD) 3.1 tool, which will help cement and concrete manufacturers better understand the environmental impact of their products and processes and ultimately enable designers to design the lowest whole life carbon buildings and infrastructure.

EPDs are independently verified and provide registered documents that communicate transparent and comparable information about the life-cycle environmental impact of products in a credible way. This formal and independent verification enables companies from all markets across the world to compare cementitious products across key environmental indicators, and includes evaluation of the natural CO₂ uptake of a cementitious product to provide a complete environmental picture. Designers can then use this information as part of whole life carbon impact evaluation of their whole project.

Thomas Guillot, GCCA CEO said: “We’re delighted to have the GCCA EPD 3.1 tool globally verified. The tool is designed to produce data that will allow cement and concrete manufacturers around the world to secure EPDs in a consistent manner and better understand the sustainable impact of their products and processes.We’ll continue to refine and develop our EPD tool so we can carry on meeting industry demand as we deliver on the pledges set out in GCCA’s recently launched Net Zero Roadmap, which will see the industry fully decarbonise by 2050.”

“EPDs are becoming increasingly important for cement and concrete manufacturers as they continue to reduce the carbon footprint of their products, and will become more vital for the wider construction sector as they seek to reduce whole life carbon of new projects,” said Andrew Minson GCCA Director of Concrete and Sustainable Construction. “GCCA’s version 3.1 tool will help the industry communicate through whole life EPDs how their products are addressing the climate challenge.”

The tool works by users entering key information on the constituents, processes and energy needs to manufacture a product, together with information about the product during its use and end of life stages. The tool outputs data that supports development and can be used to secure an EPD from a third-party.

To enable global use of the tool, there are two versions of GCCA’s EPD 3.1 tool, one for international markets and one specifically for the North American market, which has different EPD standards to the rest of the world. To become verified in North America, the 3.1 version builds on the existing 3.0 tool through the refinement of underlying data related to transport and site energy.

The GCCA EPD tool has been developed by Quantis since 2014. The international version is verified by Studio Fieschi and the North American version is verified by the Athena Institute, who have also been a development collaborator.

(ENDS)

About the GCCA

Launched in January 2018, the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) is dedicated to developing and strengthening the sector’s contribution to sustainable construction. The GCCA aims to foster innovation throughout the construction value chain in collaboration with industry associations as well as architects, engineers, and innovators. In this way, the association demonstrates how concrete solutions can meet global construction challenges and sustainable development goals while showcasing responsible industrial leadership in the manufacture and use of cement and concrete. The GCCA is headquartered in London, England. It complements and supports the work done by associations at the national and regional levels.