The Western Division of Vulcan Materials Co. has published North America’s first self-declared Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for aggregates, according to the company. An EPD is a standardized way of communicating the environmental impacts of a product in a scientifically-recognized and compact format.
EPDs are critical to meeting the needs of the growing green construction market, in particular meeting the new version 4.0 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as well as addressing investor’s increasing demand for transparency. EPDs provide quantifiable environmental data to compare products that fulfill the same function.
The published EPD is self-declared environmental data documentation for 12 concrete aggregate products manufactured at Vulcan’s Pleasanton Sand and Gravel facility located in Pleasanton, Calif.
This EPD results from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted in accordance with the International EPD System Construction Products and Construction Services Category Rule (PCR). Publication of this EPD positions Vulcan to be first in the industry with a United States-compliant and verified EPD for aggregates upon release of a North American Product Category Rule by ASTM, expected to be adopted later this year.
“While this EPD is based on European Standards, it allows us to support our customers now and positions us to quickly comply with the soon-to-be-adopted ASTM standards for North America,” said Ed Luce, manager of quality control for Vulcan’s Western Division. “Our operation in Pleasanton, California produces 12 classes of aggregate, and we now have quantified environmental impact data for each of them. It is exciting to be the pilot site for Vulcan and know that we can more effectively serve our customers in this demanding market,” said Bart Mayer, Manager of VMC’s Pleasanton operations.
The EPD for Vulcan’s Pleasanton aggregate products is available under Product Declaration.