The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) under its rigorous product certification program certified the first-ever Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for cement in North America.
Capitol Aggregates published an EPD for five cement products manufactured at its San Antonio cement plant using NRMCA as the EPD program operator. The company, a long-time member of NRMCA, is a strong regional supplier of aggregates and cement since 1957.
Developing and certifying EPDs requires a product manufacturer to go through a detailed process of conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA) of plant operations and product inputs followed by an extensive review by independent LCA professionals. NRMCA’s EPD Program follows the Product Category Rule for portland, blended hydraulic, masonry, mortar, and plastic (stucco) cements published by ASTM International. As is required by the international standards, the EPDs verified by NRMCA are published on NRMCA’s website.
Established in 2012, NRMCA’s EPD Program aims to help concrete producers and concrete product suppliers, including cement manufacturers, meet new requirements in green building rating systems, such as LEED v4 and the International Green Construction Code (IgCC). EPDs are third-party verified reports published by product manufacturers that provide quality-assured and comparable information regarding environmental performance of their products.
