Architects and building owners, in addition to the glaziers who serve them, rely increasingly on advanced levels of sustainability reporting to complement the quality of the products they use.
To better meet those needs, Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass) has published two third-party-verified, product-specific Type III Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)—for its flat glass and processed glass products—becoming the first architectural glass manufacturer in North America to do so.
What Are Environmental Product Declarations?
EPDs are internationally standardized reports that companies publish to voluntarily and transparently document the life-cycle impact of their products on the environment. Based on complex assessments of everything related to a product, from the extraction, transportation and processing of raw materials through manufacturing, recycling or final disposal, EPDs are like multi-page nutrition labels that tell the “environmental story” of a product’s lifetime.
Vitro Glass’s “flat glass” EPD is valid for all basic annealed and untreated Vitro Glass products. The “processed glass” EPD covers products that undergo secondary treatment, such as the addition of MSVD coatings, heat-strengthening, or fabrication into multi-pane insulating glass units (IGUs).
Why Are EPDs Important?
As green building certification programs and sustainable design become more mainstream and architects increasingly need to meet LEED requirements and use sustainable products and materials in their designs, demand for EPDs to identify such products is likely to grow. Vitro Glass’s published EPDs can help building projects earn up to two LEED® v4 Materials and Resources points under the category “Building Product Disclosure and Optimization,” compared to self-published health product declarations and generic industry wide EPDs, which are only considered ¼ and ½ of a product respectively.
Flat glass and processed glass products by Vitro Glass recognized in the product-specific Type III EPDs are valued as one whole product for purposes of credit achievement calculation, according to the U.S. Green Building Council. This represents the most robust compliance pathway to achieve up to two LEED v4 points.
The public posting of these EPDs also enables architects to confirm the information they provide, and to include the EPD documentation in their certification packets.
Both EPDs are certified by ASTM International as conforming to the requirements of ISO 14025. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) for flat glass and processed glass products were performed according to ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and EN 15804 following the product category rules (PCRs) for each product type.
As the use of sustainable materials trends upward and your customers weigh the environmental impact of their glass purchases, Vitro Glass continues to spearhead efforts, such as publishing these two EPDs, to remain on the forefront of sustainability in the architectural glass industry.
