ACA Sustainability Report 2022 - Report - Page 32
ACA Sustainability Report / 2022
ACA Product Category Rules
Sustainability guidelines and green certification
programs are also giving preferential treatment to
products with verified EPDs. The newest version
of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) green building rating system
rewards construction projects for using materials
for which an EPD is provided, and other green
building schemes relied on by the federal
government are following suit.
ACA’s Sustainability Committee has been
actively developing Product Category Rules
(PCR). The committee has developed a
PCR for Architectural Coatings, Resinous
Floor Coatings, and Powder Coatings, and is
currently developing a PCR for Coil Coatings.
A PCR provides an agreed-upon framework
for measuring the environmental impacts of
a product based on a defined set of criteria,
which allows manufacturers to conduct lifecycle assessments (LCA) of their products in a
standardized way, and publish this information
in an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD),
if they so choose.
Those are but two examples of the growing
importance and demand for EPDs, but consider
too, that LCA results can be used to demonstrate
performance attributes of products, including
durability. LCA also provides paint and coating
manufacturers with the opportunity to exhibit
improvements in resource efficiency across the
supply chain.
The utility of the PCR for Architectural Coatings,
for instance, is timely and considerable, since
decision makers are increasingly considering
information about the life-cycle impacts of
products when selecting which products
they choose to sell, specify, or use. Retailers,
standard-setting bodies, and consumers are
requiring information or giving favorable status
to products and brands able to describe their
life-cycle impacts and benefits.
ACA will continue to make its PCRs available
for free download, as well as explore additional
market segments for development.
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8 Manufacturers
CREATED APPROXIMATELY
EPDs
MEANING WELL OVER
500+ formulas/
specific products
covered by those EPDs
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