Environmental Product Declaration Basalite with CarbonCure 313 MWA Sandstone Concrete Masonry Unit with CarbonCure 1
Introduction Basalite has commissioned CarbonCure Technologies for this Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) to provide environmental information about 313 MWA Sandstone Concrete Masonry Units made with CarbonCure s technology from raw material extraction through shipment to the customer (cradle-to-gate). The information provided here meets the requirements of ISO 21930, as well as the Concrete Product Category Rule. Product Manufacturer This EPD was issued for Basalite 313 MWA Sandstone Concrete Masonry Units with CarbonCure. Commissioner This EPD was commissioned by CarbonCure Technologies. Product Category Rule The Carbon Leadership Forum PCR: Product Category Rules (PCR) for ISO 14025 Type III Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) Concrete, Version 1.1 dated 12/4/2013, serves as the PCR for this EPD. www.carbonleadershipforum.org. Verification Independent verification of the declaration, according to ISO 14025:2006 internal external Date of Issue and Period of Validity This EPD was issued on November 1st, 2014 and is valid for 5 years until November 1st, 2019. Product Description This Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) reports the impacts of concrete masonry units (CMU) products: ASTM C90 Load Bearing Concrete Masonry Units CSI Specification Sector 04 22 00 - Concrete Unit Masonry UNSPSC Code 30131502 - Concrete Blocks The product has compressive strength of 20 MPa (3,000 psi) at 28 days. 2
Life cycle assessment A summary of life cycle stages included in the EPD is as follows: 1. Raw Material Supply (upstream processes): Extraction, handling and processing of the raw materials used in production of concrete: cement, supplementary cementitious materials, aggregate (coarse and fine), water, admixtures and other materials or chemicals used in concrete mixtures. 2. Transportation: Transportation of these materials from supplier to the 'gate' of the concrete producer. 3. Manufacturing (core processes): The energy used to store, batch, mix and distribute the concrete and operate the facility (concrete plant). 4. Water use in mixing and distributing concrete. A summary of processes excluded from the EPD is as follows: 1. Production, manufacture and construction of buildings, capital goods and infrastructure. 2. Production and manufacture of concrete production equipment, concrete delivery vehicles, earthmoving equipment and laboratory equipment. 3. Personnel related activities (e.g. travel, furniture, office supplies). 4. Energy and water use related to company management and sales activities. 5. Impacts related to the disposal or end of life of the concrete product. A summary of the limitations of this EPD include: 1. This EPD does not report all of the environmental impacts due to manufacturing of the product, but rather reports the environmental impacts for those categories with established life cycle assessment based methods to track and report. Unreported environmental impacts include (but are not limited to) factors attributable to human health, land use change and habitat destruction. 2. This EPD reports the results of an LCA for 'cradle-to-gate' analysis. Thus declarations themselves are not comparative assertions, defined as an environmental claim regarding the superiority of equivalence of one product versus a competing product that performs the same function. An EPD does not make any statements that the product covered by an EPD is better or worse than any other product. 3. In order to assess the local impacts of product manufacturing, additional analysis is required. 4. Life Cycle Impact Assessment results are relative expressions and do not predict impacts on category endpoints, the exceeding of thresholds, safety margins or risks. 3
Data quality and variability This EPD was created using plant-specific data for upstream materials. Potential variations due to supplier locations, manufacturing processes and efficiencies and fuel use are thus accounted for in this EPD. Material LCI data sources LCI process Geography, Year Portland cement, at plant, no USEI 2.2 (modified EI 2.2) Portland cement, at plant USA, 2002 infrastructure/kg NREL/US U (kg) NREL/US U Gravel, unspecified, at mine, no USEI 2.2 (modified EI 2.2) Gravel, unspecified, at USA, 2001 infrastructure/us US-EI U (kg) mine/us US-EI U Plasticising Admixtures, Normal, EFCA Environmental Plasticizing Admixtures, Europe, 2006 (kg) Declaration: Plastisicing Normal Admixtures Diesel Consumed (gal) USEI 2.2 (modified USLCI) Diesel, combusted in industrial equipment NREL/US U Natural gas, combusted in US EI 2.2 (modified EI 2.2) Natural gas, at power plant/us industrial boiler/m 3 /US (gal) US-EI U Disposal, concrete, 5% water, to Producer Concrete Disposal, concrete, 5% water, WA, 2014 landfill (kg), Product batch water, to inert landfill/ US US-EI U Company Source Data, 2014 Electricity, medium voltage, at USEI 2.2 (modified EI 2.2) Electricity, medium voltage, at grid, no infrastructure/kwh/us grid, no infrastructure /US US- (kwh) EI U Water, concrete batching (m 3 ) Producer Concrete Substance water, unspecified WA, 2014 Product batch water, natural origin, WA Company Source Data, 2014 Transportation Transport, USEI 2.2 (modified USLCI) Transportation, combination combination truck, diesel truck, diesel powered NREL/US powered/tkm NREL/US U (km) U 4
Declared Unit The declared unit of this EPD is 1 m 3 of Basalite s Concrete Masonry Unit made with CarbonCure s technology, produced in Dupont, WA. Environmental Impacts EPDs of concrete mixtures may not be comparable if they do not comply with this standard and data from this EPD. The data cannot be used to compare between concrete mixes, construction products or concrete mixtures used in different concrete products unless the data is integrated into a comprehensive LCA. For example, precast concrete, concrete masonry units and site cast concrete all have different manufacturing processes whose impacts are attributed to different LCA stages. This precludes direct comparison between mixtures use in these different products unless all life cycle phases are included. Life Cycle Inventory Data Indicator Units Raw material supply Manufacturing Transportation Total Depletion of non-renewable energy resources Depletion of non-renewable material resources Hazardous waste MJ kg kg 2135 1157 304.0 3596 2297 0.090 0.070 2297 9.26 0.284 0.062 9.60 Non-hazardous waste kg 122.9 0.184 0.305 123.3 Total primary energy consumption MJ 2206 1256 304 3767 Total water consumption m 3 295.3 502.7 1.90 799.9 Use of renewable primary energy MJ 70.9 99.3 0.378 170.6 5
Life Cycle Impact Assessment Results Raw material Indicator Units supply Manufacturing Transportation Total Acidification kg SO 2 eq 2.30 0.119 0.133 2.55 Eutrophication kg N eq 0.113 0.005 0.010 0.128 Global warming kg CO 2 eq 473.9 12.6 22.7 509.2 Ozone depletion kg CFC-11 eq 7.06E-06 4.21E-06 5.16E-09 1.13E-05 Smog kg O 3 eq 30.2 0.448 3.62 34.2 References Construction Technology Laboratories, Inc. (CTL). (2002). Life Cycle Inventory of Slag Cement Manufacturing Process. CTL Project No. 312012. Retrieved from http://www.slagcement.org/sustainability/pdf/slag%20cement%20lci%20letter%20report%20august%2011%202003.pdf EarthShift LLC. (2013). US-EI Database. Retrieved from http://www.earthshift.com/software/simapro/usei-database European Federation of Concrete Admixture Associations (EFCA). (2006). EFCA Environmental Declaration: Plasticizing Admixtures. Sittard, The Netherlands. Retrieved from http://www.efca.info/downloads/324%20etg%20plasticiser%20epd.pdf Frischknecht, R., Jungbluth, N., Althaus, H.-J., Doka, G., Dones, R., Heck, T., Hellweg, S., Hischier, R., Nemecek, T., Rebitzer, G., Spielmann, M. (2007). The ecoinvent Database: Overview and Methodology. Dubendorf, CH: Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories. Retrieved from http://www.ecoinvent.org/fileadmin/documents/en/01_overviewandmethodology.pdf "U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database." (2012). National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2012. Retrieved from https://www.lcacommons.gov/nrel/search 6