What is an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)?
An EPD is a comprehensive report disclosing the environmental impacts of a product over its cradle-to-grave life cycle. It is an internationally recognised, single, comprehensive disclosure of a product’s environmental impact throughout its life cycle. EPDs provide quantified environmental data using predetermined parameters and, where relevant, additional environmental information.
Why is an EPD important?
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are an important validation tool for Kingspan Insulation to provide transparent data about the environmental sustainability of our products. It is also important for us as a supplier to the construction industry to enable specifiers to make informed purchasing decisions. For Kingspan Insulation, obtaining an EPD is simply not the end goal but more so a tool to assess the entire lifecycle of our products and to thus make decisions on how we can improve the environmental footprint of our products. EPDs allow us to see any major hotspots in the lifecycle of our products and from there we can improve processes to reduce these areas. Finally, EPDs allow Kingspan to highlight the reductions in environmental product impacts caused by the extensive work that is being done in the ‘Planet Passionate’ long term sustainability strategy.
The products
Kingspan Kooltherm is an extensive range of high performance rigid thermoset phenolic insulation. It is the thinnest commonly used insulation board for any specific R-value, providing benefits such as saving on energy costs that could be incurred by the use of heating or cooling systems, and a more comfortable and healthy environment. The Kooltherm range is locally manufactured in Australia, where the Kooltherm K10 products, including K10 G2 Soffit Board, K10 G2W White Soffit Board, K10 Plus Soffit Board, as well as Kooltherm K17 Insulated Plasterboard, are included in this Environmental Product Declaration.
The Environmental Product Declaration of these insulation boards helps Kingspan and its customers understand the environmental footprint of their products. By understanding the environmental footprint, Kingspan can seek ways of reducing their impact on the environment and to create more sustainable processes for producing K10 G2, K10 G2W, K10 Plus and K17 products. Our Environmental Product Declaration will be a starting point for us as we pursue new methods and processes of producing a lower carbon product.
Image: Dr Chau Chak Wing Building (Photography by Andrew Worssam)
