Firestone Building Products Co. LLC has released a guide to help customers navigate its green products for LEED v4 requirements. Spanning the full portfolio of green products—from energy-saving polyiso insulations to reflective TPO membranes and vegetative roofing solutions—the guide specifies how Firestone products can help minimize environmental impact while maximizing building value. It’s the first time the company has created an all-inclusive resource for products that earn LEED credits. The guide also contains a quick-reference page that can be separated for on-the-go access. Download the guide at bit.ly/2gElzY0.
RCMA, NSF International Create Roof Coating Materials PCR
December 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association (RCMA) and NSF International have created a product category rule (PCR) for roof coating materials. PCRs enable product environmental information to be more transparent and useful to the marketplace. Products covered in this PCR include fluid-applied and adhered coatings used for roof maintenance or roof repair, or as a component of a roof covering system or roof assembly.
Based on international environmental management guidelines (ISO 14025), a PCR defines how to conduct a life cycle assessment for a particular product group and what to include in the resulting report. A life-cycle assessment measures inputs, outputs and environmental impacts of a product across its lifespan. The environmental product declaration (EPD) is the third-party-verified report that explains the data generated from a life cycle assessment. What is included in the EPD is also defined by the PCR.
The NSF International National Center for Sustainability Standards (NCSS) utilized an open consultative process to develop the PCR with participation from an expert panel of RCMA members, suppliers, regulatory agencies, environmental organizations and end users. RCMA promotes the benefits of roof coatings and represents manufacturers of asphaltic and solar reflective roof coatings as well as suppliers to the roof coatings industry.
“This product category rule developed by RCMA and NSF International provides our industry a needed guideline for calculating and reporting the environmental attributes of roof coatings,” says Jim Kirby, executive director of RCMA. “The subsequent life cycle analyses developed by our members using the PCR can provide a basis for improvement to enable reductions in environmental impacts over time. We look forward to the positive impact this will have on the industry and those seeking more sustainable building products.”
“As a manufacturer participating in the PCR development, we support our industry in providing transparent and science-based information to our customers,” says Douglas P. Mazeffa, environmental project manager at Sherwin Williams. “Our company is committed to helping customers make informed, environmentally-based purchasing decisions.”
“Industries benefit from NSF International’s standards development process that was used to develop the PCR for roof coating materials,” states Jessica Slomka, manager of the NSF International National Center for Sustainability Standards. “By engaging RCMA members and other stakeholders, we help ensure the environmental impacts in the life cycle of a product are represented. The result is a defined set of rules that enable comparative data to be gathered and reported in a standardized fashion. This is crucial in helping builder’s source products that meet their environmental goals.”
Verified environmental product declarations (EPDs) as defined by this PCR may help building projects qualify for points through the LEED v4 Material and Resource credits and comply with the International Green Construction Code (IgCC).
RCMA Updates Reflective Roof Coatings and LEED White Paper
January 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The Washington, D.C.-based Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association has updated its reflective roof coatings and LEED white paper, originally issued by the Reflective Roof Coatings Institute (RRCI) in 2012. (RCMA and RRCI announced their merger in early 2015.)
The white paper explores the role of reflective roof coatings in the Washington-based U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Version 4 green-building program with emphasis on new building structure, existing building operation and maintenance, and LEED v4 prerequisites and credit requirements.
The white paper intends to provide understanding for stakeholders about the cost-effective contributions of roof coatings and the environmentally sound new building and renovation projects that use LEED v4. The white paper also serves as a resource, which outlines the benefits that reflective roof coatings provide to buildings, businesses and the environment. The findings in the LEED white paper apply to any reflective roof coatings that are LEED-compliant.
Bob Kobet of The Kobet Collaborative, Pittsburgh, is the author of the LEED white paper updates, as well as RRCI’s original white paper. Members of the RCMA Reflective Roof Coatings Institute, RCMA Technical Affairs Committee, and RCMA Codes and Standards Task Force collaborated on the project to update and revise the white paper to incorporate LEED’s new version.
The COP21 agreement presents a major opportunity for architects around the globe to provide leadership in designing buildings and communities that help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Its call for capacity building for adaptation and mitigation of climate change represents exactly what the architecture profession excels at providing,” says Russell Davidson, FAIA, AIA president, as the COP21 meeting of the United Nations Climate Change conference concluded.
The new “Reflective Roof Coatings and LEED v4” white paper is published online on RCMA’s website.
EPDs Provide a New Level of Environmental Transparency to Building Products
May 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The sustainability movement has impacted the building industry in many ways. Today’s architects, owners and occupants have much greater expectations for the environmental performance of the buildings they design, operate and dwell in. Part of this expectation is focused on the components that make up the building. For example, did the wood come from responsibly harvested forests? Is the metal made of recycled material? Do the paint and interior finishes contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs)?
An EPD is developed by applying a Product Category Rule. PCRs are developed, maintained and warehoused by program operators. Examples of program operators include ASTM, CSA, ICC-ES, Environdec and UL Environment. Program operators also verify that an EPD and its associated life-cycle assessment conform with ISO 14025 and the ISO 14040 series. PCR development is commonly a collaborative effort between industry associations, manufacturers, and/or others. IMAGE: Quantis US
In response to the growing demand for environmental product information, building component manufacturers have begun rolling out environmental product declarations, or EPDs.
It’s a term now commonly heard, but what are they? EPDs are often spoken in the same breath as things like LCA (life-cycle assessment), PCRs (product category rules) and many other TLAs (three-letter acronyms). The fact is they are all related and are part of an ongoing effort to provide as much transparency as possible about what goes into the products that go in and on a building.
“An EPD is a specific document that informs the reader about the environmental performance of a product,” explains Sarah Mandlebaum, life-cycle analyst with Quantis US, the Boston-based branch of the global sustainability consulting firm Quantis. “It balances the need for credible and thorough information with the need to make such information reasonably understandable. The information provided in the document is based on a life-cycle assessment, or LCA, of the product, which documents the environmental impacts of that product from ‘cradle to grave.’ This includes impacts from material production, manufacturing, transportation, use and disposal of the product. An EPD is simply a standardized way of communicating the outcomes of such an assessment.”
The concept of product LCAs has been around for some time and has often been looked at as a way of determining the sustainability of a particular product by establishing the full scope of its environmental footprint. The basic idea is to closely catalog everything that goes into a product throughout its entire life. That means the energy, raw materials, and emissions associated with sourcing its materials, manufacturing it, transporting it, installing it and, ultimately, removing and disposing of it. In the end, an LCA results in a dizzying amount of data that can be difficult to translate or put in any context. EPDs are one way to help provide context and help put LCA data to use.
“The summary of environmental impact data in the form of an EPD can be analogous to a nutrition label on food,” says Scott Kriner, LEED AP, technical director of the Metal Construction Association (MCA), Chicago. “There is plenty of information on the label, but the information itself is meaningless unless one is focused on one area. An LCA determines the water, energy and waste involved in the extraction of raw materials, the manufacturing process, the transportation to a job site and the reclamation of waste at the end of the useful life of a product. With that data in hand, the various environmental impact categories can be determined and an EPD can be developed to summarize the environmental impact information.”
