Individual EPDs for London Concrete plants and products
New plant- and product-specific EPDs for ready-mixed concrete solutions across the capital
AS part of their ongoing commitment to sustainability, Aggregate Industries have invested in new, independently verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for their range of ready-mixed concrete mixes, including low-carbon concretes, throughout London.
Each EPD is now specific to the product mix and the plant at which the concrete is produced across the company’s London Concrete business and not based on regional averages.
An EPD describes materials, products or components in terms of their environmental impact, based on life-cycle assessments and their functional and technical characteristics. The quantitative, objective and verified information covers the entire lifecycle of the product and constitutes an important basis for assessing sustainability in construction.
Crucially, EPDs can support engineers and architects in making informed decisions on low-impact materials, components and construction methods based on their environmental performance early in the design process, thereby helping to achieve important carbon reduction targets.
In a UK first for ready-mixed concrete products, Aggregate Industries have invested in individual product and plant EPDs for their London Concrete business. This includes the ECOPact product range, DYNAMax high-performance concrete, as well as other generic concrete mixes across all plants in the region.
EPDs are associated with voluntary Type III environmental labels. As part of this, EPD products are summarized and documented in a uniform format that is factual, neutral, specifically sound and unbiased. They are based on the ISO 14025 and EN 15804 standards and are tested and verified by independent third parties.
Until recently, EPDs for concrete had only been available as averages for entire regions or product groups. Now, every London Concrete plant will have its own individual product- and plant-specific EPD.
Since EPDs must be calculated and comprehensively audited by an independent verifier, it means each product comes with a credible assessment of its environmental impact, allowing architects, designers, planners and building contractors to measure the CO2 footprint and circularity of materials more accurately than ever before.
More importantly, say Aggregate Industries, it will allow them to compare the sustainable credentials of different cement and concrete products, providing the precise data they need to make more informed and sustainable choices.
