Lehigh Cement operations have published the first cement plant-product specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) utilizing the new North American Product Category Rule (PCR) for Portland, Blended, Masonry, Mortar, and Stucco Cements. The declarations were prepared by California-based programmer Climate Earth, and were published on June 1.
The EPDs clearly show the immediate Global Warming Potential (GWP) in Kg of CO2 equivalent reduction when ordinary portland cement (OPC) also known as GU/Type I/II is switched to EcoCem PLC. Concrete mixtures incorporating EcoCemcould reduce the GWP by as much as 10% below the use of OPC. As ready mixed concrete producers strive for Lower Carbon Concrete (LCC), they are increasing their use of EcoCem and supplemental cementitious materials, according to the producer. Under the EcoCem PLC brand, Lehigh has promoted the Type IL/GUL cement for nearly a decade, primarily in the Pacific Northwest and Ontario.
The Lehigh declarations reference ASTM C 150 Types IL, I/II, III and companion CSA A3001 Types GUL, GU, HE cements from the Delta (B.C.) cement plant and terminal, and Bellingham (Wash.) cement grinding plant and terminal.
“We have made it one of our top priorities to benchmark and lower our CO2 emissions with ambitious targets,” said Shawn McMillan, vice president of cement sales & logistics for Lehigh Hanson’s Canada Region. “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 optimize the carbon impacts from cement and concrete.”
The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association is hosting the Delta and Bellingham EPDs, posted here and here, as EPD program operator.
