Lehigh Hanson has published cement plant-product specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) utilising the new North American Product Category Rule (PCR).
Lehigh says the EPDs show the immediate global warming potential (GWP) in Kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent reduction when ordinary portland cement (OPC) also known as GU/Type I/II is switched to EcoCemPLC.
Concrete mixtures incorporating EcoCemPLC could reduce the GWP by as much as 10% below the use of OPC, the company adds.
Shawn McMillan, vice president of cement sales & logistics at Lehigh, says: “Much like food nutrition labels highlight calorific values, our plant and product-specific EPDs communicate the environmental impact through GWP for cement in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.
"We intend to use the added product transparency to more effectively gain adoption for our lower carbon products.
"We have several research projects and studies ongoing to continue to optimise the carbon impacts from cement and concrete.”
According to Lehigh, ready mixed concrete producers that strive for lower carbon concrete are increasing their use of EcoCemPLC and supplemental cementitious materials.
The EcoCem products seek to reduce embodied carbon of cement and concrete. EcoCemPLC was introduced to Vancouver in 2011 as an environmentally responsible cement that reduces typical CO2 emissions.
As part of a commitment to improving the sustainable attributes of construction materials, Lehigh has got involved with industry-wide EPDs, committees to establish PCRs and serving on sustainability research, environmental and product task forces in Canada and the US.
It has also applied the North American PCR for portland, blended, masonry, mortar, and plastic (stucco) cements published by NSF International, National Center for Sustainability Standards.
Lehigh plants in Delta, British Columbia, and Bellingham, Washington, have worked with Climate Earth to develop Life Cycle Assessments and plant/product-specific, third party verified EPDs.
These plants disclosed environmental impact data specific to the following three cement products manufactured at each facility:
- General Use Limestone or Type IL named EcoCemPLC
- General Use or Type I/II
- High Early or Type III)
Lehigh is using the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) for the EPD programme operator and the Cement Plant EPDs are published on the following NRMCA website:
Bellingham EPD: https://www.nrmca.org/sustainability/EPDProgram/Downloads/EPD-BellinghamNRMCAEPD20033.pdf
See also:
Delta EPD: https://www.nrmca.org/sustainability/EPDProgram/Downloads/EPD-DeltaNRMCAEPD20034.pdf
Source:
https://www.lehighhanson.com/resources/news/news-post/news/2020/06/24/cement-epds-new-pcr
