Week 12 - Materials: EPD Example

2. Green Materials

2.3. EPD Example

An EPD was developed for a New Zealand ready-mix concrete company in order to determine the environmental impact associated with the production of one cubic metre (m³) of normal grade ready mix concrete. The inventory information for one grade of concrete is displayed below.

Table 2: Batching plant material summary for 50MPa concrete

EPD table

1Electricity values represent electricity used to manufacture all products, all compressive strength classes - not just 50MPa

2Wastewater values are for site - not just 50MPa

The figure below shows how EPD's can be used to compare the environmental impacts of similar products.

GWP comp

All data kindly provided by Jones, 2014

Click here for a link to another EPD example - site