At its recent annual meeting in Orlando, FL, the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) introduced its Emerald Eco-Label, which is an easy-to-use tool to help companies report the potential environmental impacts of an asphalt mixture.
According to NAPA, the green construction market is entering a new era with a focus on product transparency and measuring a product's impact on sustainability. As a result, green construction rating systems, such as LEED v 4, Greenroads, and Envision are increasingly structuring credits that encourage the use of products with life-cycle information communicated through Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) or that demonstrate through life-cycle assessment (LCA) a reduced environmental impact.
And EPD is similar to a nutrition label, reporting the energy use, materials used and the potential environmental impacts associated with the product.
The Emerald Eco-Label EPD tool was developed in conformance with ISO 14025, which establishes principles and procedures for developing Type III environmental declaration programs and Type III environmental declarations, as well as European Committee for Standardization (CEN) EN 15804:2012, which transparently describes the potential environmental impacts of the described product caused during the identified stages.
Features
An Emerald Eco-Label, NAPA Verified EPD is a registered report that provides valuable, verifiable, and comparable information about the environmental performance of products in the asphalt industry.
The web-based tool makes it easy for a company to input data about all cradle-to-gate activities involved in creating an asphalt mixture, such as fuel and water used at the plant and during transportation; aggregate, binder, additives; warm mix technologies; and recycled materials.
To ensure data entered is confidential, the tool is hosted by a third party. NAPA doesn’t have access to a company’ sensitive information. The EPD report only states the potential environmental impacts of the mix.
In addition to meeting green construction code requirements, the Emerald Eco-Label can help improve operational efficiency.
Tracking material inputs and energy use at the mix and plant level helps a company fine-tune its operations to improve production efficiency, saving money and reducing potential environmental impacts. The same data can improve corporate sustainability reporting.
The Emerald Eco-Label tool will be available April 1, and there is a cost structure for NAPA members and non-members.
For more information please contact Kelly Kanaras, associate director of member programs at [email protected].
