The building and construction sector accounted for approximately 37% of energy- and process-related CO2 emissions and over 34% of energy demand globally, according to the UN Environment Program’s (UNEP) 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction. Those alarming statistics point to the critical importance of selecting sustainable building materials to help reduce the negative environmental impact of buildings.
Reducing the environmental impact of the built environment starts with material selection. Today, a variety of tools and resources are available to architects and designers aimed at helping them make smarter building material choices to decrease the carbon footprint of their construction projects.
Some of these tools and resources include:
EPDs
Environmental product declarations (EPDs) are a standardized disclosure tool that provide the most detailed cradle-to-grave information available to architects and building design professionals. EPDs tell the story of a product, as it relates to its environmental impact, through its life cycle and life span. It is a comprehensive report that ultimately allows clients to compare products on equal ground by using the same rules and reporting metrics. The more specific data is used, the more accurate the result will be, which is why it is incredibly important to use site-specific data whenever possible.
EPDs help architects and designers compare and analyze the embodied carbon footprint of construction materials. This comparison and analysis can be generated using tools like the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), a free database of construction EPDs administered by the nonprofit Building Transparency.
Earlier this year Kingspan announced a new set of EPDs, revealing that our most thermally efficient QuadCore® insulation core has the lowest global warming potential (GWP) in North America, when compared with other insulated metal panel manufacturers. Global warming potential is used as a measure of the embodied carbon of a product.
These new third-party certified EPDs are the result of 12 months of manufacturing data collected at Kingspan plants in Modesto, California; DeLand, Florida; Caledon, Ontario; and Langley, British Columbia.
ASHRAE
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) develops technical guidelines and standards focusing on areas such as refrigerant emission reduction, building energy conservation, air quality and thermal comfort. Architects can consult ASHRAE standards to design buildings that provide healthy and comfortable indoor air quality for building occupants.
Another ASHRAE resource that can help architects reduce greenhouse gas emissions in buildings is the recently introduced Building Performance Standards (BPS): A Technical Resource Guide. Created to provide a technical basis for policymakers, building owners, practitioners and other stakeholders interested in developing and implementing a BPS policy, this guide is the first in a series of seven guidebooks by ASHRAE on building decarbonization.
UL GREENGUARD
Third-party certifications like UL GREENGUARD are resources architects can use to specify building materials that are good for both the built environment and the human environment.
Underwriters Laboratories’ (UL) GREENGUARD certifications can help architects identify building materials with low chemical emissions that are not harmful to building occupants and do not adversely impact indoor environment quality (IEQ).
A GREENGUARD certified product is tested for more than 11,000 chemicals to ensure the product meets strict standards for low chemical emissions. Healthy and green building programs including LEED, BREEAM, Fitwel, WELL and others recognize UL certification products within their building standards
Kingspan is the only metal panel manufacturer in North America to deliver GREENGUARD or GREENGUARD Gold Certified products.
Using these and other tools and resources architects can make smarter building material choices to protect the planet and people.