Allied Concrete has become the first company to register an EPD from New Zealand in the International EPD® System.

Their EPD covers a range of 8 strengths of ready mix concrete from 28 batching plants around New Zealand using cement manufactured by Holcim Cement's Westport plant. The EPD parameters describe environmental impacts based on one cubic meter of concrete, averaged across all plants covered by the EPD. Allied Concrete is a privately owned company with approximately half of its plants run in partnership with Holcim NZ.

“We decided that using the EPD format was a transparent and smart way of presenting our product environmental profile,” commented Chris Munn, National Technical Manager Allied Concrete. “I would recommend the EPD process and format to other people. We can now encourage our customers to select different concretes based on environmental considerations as well as structural performance. As a result of developing the EPD we also now have a system to drive efficiency improvements (direct costs and material saving) across the business, and assess the environmental impact of business decisions.”

The EPD was developed and verified using the recently published PCR for concrete, PCR 2013:02 CPC 375 Concrete (Compliant with EN 15804), prepared by the WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative.

With the addition of an EPD from New Zealand, there are now EPDs from 23 countries from four continents published in the International EPD® System.

The Product Category Rules (PCR) for Machine-tools for drilling, boring or milling metal have been updated to version 2.0. The PCR with registration number 2012:02 was originally published in January 2012 in the International EPD® System.

The update was led by the PCR Moderator Eva Martínez Herrero at Fundación centro tecnológico de miranda de ebro (CTME) in Spain. The key changes in the update include:

• Updated to comply with the latest General Programme Instructions (version 2.01)
• Minor editorial changes and clarifications, e.g. the inclusion of primary and secondary packaging was added.
• Clarification that specific data shall be used in the core module.
• Methods used to assess noise, vibration and electromagnetic wave emissions shall be declared in the EPD.
• Clarification that parameters shall be included in Declared Unit.
• Examples of quantification of diffusion emissions were included in Allocation Rules.
• A template to collect the information of chemical preparations was included in Data Quality Rules.
• A recycling declaration and end of life scenarios were included.
• References were added.

The updated PCR is avialable to develop and register EPDs. The validity of the new version is until 2018-01-25.

PRESS RELEASE, 2014-07-02

Product Category Rules (PCR) for declaring the environmental impact of Insulation materials have now been published in the International EPD® System.

The development of the PCR was led by Stefano Rossi at Life Cycle Engineering as the appointed PCR Moderator in accordance with the PCR Process described in the General Programme Instructions, based on ISO 14025. During the development of the document, it has been subject for an open consultation on www.environdec.com as well as a review by the appointed Technical Committee.

This PCR aims towards compliance with the European standard EN 15804 (Sustainability of construction works - Environmental product declarations - Core rules for the product category of construction products). (Core rules for the product category of construction products).

The PCR is now available for any company to voluntarily develop and publish information on the life cycle environment impact of this type of product in a transparent and comparable way.

The Secretariat will be closed for about two weeks during the summer period of 2014. For any questions the EPD System, EPDs, PCRs or EPD registrations, please use the following contacts:

We kinly request EPD registrations in July to be submitted no later than July 16th.

The Secretariat wishes you a very pleasant summer!

Product Category Rules (PCR) for declaring the environmental impact of Fish, otherwise prepared or preserved; caviar and caviar substitutes have now been published in the International EPD® System.

The development of the PCR was led by Maurizio Fieschi at Studio Fieschi as the appointed PCR Moderator in accordance with the PCR Process described in the General Programme Instructions of the International EPD® System, based on ISO 14025. During the development of the document, it has been subject for an open consultation on www.environdec.com as well as a review by the appointed Technical Committee.

The PCR is now available for any company to voluntarily develop and publish information on the life cycle environment impact of this type of product in a transparent and comparable way.

Product Category Rules (PCR) for declaring the environmental impact of PCR published for Fabricated steel products, except construction products, machinery and equipment have now been published in the International EPD® System.

The development of the PCR done in parallel to a PCR for fabricated steel construction products, which is still pending technical review and publication. The finalization of the PCR was led by Gorka Benito Alonso at IK Ingenieria according to the PCR Process described in the General Programme Instructions of the International EPD® System, based on ISO 14025. During the development of the document, it has been subject for an open consultation on www.environdec.com as well as a review by the appointed Technical Committee.

The PCR is now available for any company to voluntarily develop and publish information on the life cycle environment impact of these types of product in a transparent and comparable way.