The Cement Sustainability Initiative has developed its Product Category Rules (PCR) for unreinforced concrete. This set of rules has been published by the International EPD® System and provides a common methodology for concrete producers wishing to issue Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for their products
EPDs look at the life cycle of a product to determine its environmental impact. An EPD provides data that can be easily compared and so offers a basis from which users can determine which products have the least environmental impacts through a building’s life cycle. EPDs establish the assumptions, scope and functional units (e.g. kg or m3), so they cannot be altered to favour particular products and can be compared only when they are based on the same PCR.
The CSI is providing this set of PCR as a reference to its members and the wider industry to enable the development of EPDs at a time when environmental impact is an increasingly important factor in the choice of building materials. The PCR, which is flexible enough to allow for regional standard variations, is registered under the International EPD® System (Environdec). It is based on the ISO standard for EPD (ISO 14025:2006) and complies with the European standard for construction products (EN 15804:2012). So far, the PCR focus on the impact of concrete production from cradle to gate for B2B purposes. However, the Cement Sustainability Initiative is investigating whether concrete’s contribution to the sustainability of a building during the building’s lifecycle can also be captured.
Adapted from press release by Katherine Guenioui.