NRMCA’s Lionel Lemay presented Environmental Product Declarations: What Are They and Why Should I Care? at three events last week. The first, organized by Valparaiso University in Indiana, included concrete producers, engineers, architects and students. The second, hosted by the Tennessee Concrete Association during its annual meeting, included concrete producer members and materials and equipment suppliers. The third took place at NRMCA’s Annual Convention in San Antonio, TX, at the Materials Division meeting made up of material supplier members of NRMCA. 

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are starting to appear in the U.S. as the common methodology for assessing the potential environmental performance of a product or process. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED v4 Rating System and Architecture 2030 for Products are starting the demand for EPDs. Lemay’s presentations provided details on EPDs, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that supports them and the Product Category Rules (PCRs) that set the ground rules. NRMCA has become an EPD Program Operator as a way to enable concrete producers to meet the new requirements for EPDs.