SMET lead the way in the dry mortar industry with the publication of flowing screed EPD
Smet Building Products Ltd, true to its promise of ‘Bringing European Innovation’, leads the way once more, in the UK and Irish Dry-Mortar industry, with the recent publication of an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for their German-made Calcium Sulphate Flowing Screed materials made by CASEA.
Produced by third-party verified EPD Publisher, IBU Germany, the LCA result comprises the manufacture of screed with calcium sulphate binding agents in Germany and can be used in particular for planning purposes prior to awarding contracts.
The document is now available for free download on the IGBC’s newly formed platform EPD Ireland which allows manufacturers of construction products to provide 3rd party verified transparent information on the environmental impacts of their products.
Along with global leaders such as Saint-Gobain, Forbo, Kingspan, Ecocem and Ecological Building Systems, SMET has uploaded its EPDs (screed and render) which were developed under international programmes. Most of these are for imported products and have published through programmes such as IBU Germany and BRE in the UK.
The intention of the EPD Ireland platform is to aggregate all this info into a national database. A ‘one-stop shop’, so to speak where the database will become the ‘go-to’ point for sustainable-savvy designers and architects. Read more about this in this month’s Passive House Plus magazine.
Created by the Irish Green Building Council, EPD Ireland provides a platform for specifiers to source products with Environmental Product Declarations and other information such as responsible procurement or declaration of healthy ingredients. This is a first for Ireland, and the programme is made possible with the support of EPA Green Enterprise funding. This will allow Irish producers to create an Environmental Product Declaration for their product, using product category rules for Ireland and have it verified and published on a national platform.
What is an EPD?
An Environmental Product Declaration is a 3rd party verified document prepared by a manufacturer to set out the various environmental impacts of their products in a clear and transparent manner. They need to follow a set of rules set out by the EPD programme operator in that country, and they must be verified by a qualified verifier. They are now considered the basic building blocks for the construction industry to start measuring the embodied environmental impacts of construction.
About the EPD Ireland programme
IGBC is currently developing the EPD Ireland programme with the support of EPA Green Enterprise funding. This will allow Irish producers to create an Environmental Product Declaration for their product, using product category rules for Ireland and have it verified and published on a national platform.
Scope of the CASEA screed with calcium sulphate binding agents EPD
This EPD is an association EPD for all member companies of the Bundesverband der Gipsindustrie e.V. and the Industriegruppe Estrichstoffe in accordance with the list of members on www.gips.de. The LCA result comprises the manufacture of screed with calcium sulphate binding agents in Germany and can be used in particular for planning purposes prior to awarding contracts. The market for screeds with calcium sulphate as a binding agent is well covered by the members of the Bundesverband der Gipsindustrie e.V. and the Industriegruppe Estrichstoffe.
The technical data was taken from the publications of the Bundesverband der Gipsindustrie e.V. and the Industriegruppe Estrichstoffe currently available, as well as the manufacturers represented there. This document is translated from the German Environmental Product Declaration into English. It is based on the German original version EPD-BVG- 20150175-IAG1-DE. The verifier has no influence on the quality of the translation.
The owner of the declaration shall be liable for the underlying information and evidence; the IBU shall not be liable with respect to manufacturer information, life cycle assessment data, and evidence.
For more on SMET’s EPDs or screed:
SMET has a range of technical articles for your perusal. Have a look at the latest in trouble-free UFH solutions…