Help Customers Decide Which Products Are Sustainable and Economical

By Master Builders Solutions. 

Tools you can use to analyze a product’s environmental impact and make informed decisions.  

If you are a roofing contractor who is looking to differentiate your business by expanding into concrete, researching the products you use is crucial. Understanding the environmental impact of products like concrete mixtures is something many customers want to know. Master Builders Solutions provides two different services to help construction industry professionals know how sustainable certain concrete products are: Eco-Efficiency Analysis and Environmental Product Declarations service. 

Eco-Efficiency Analysis 

The aim of Master Builders Solutions’ Eco-Efficiency analysis is to compare similar products or processes. The Eco-Efficiency analysis balances the environmental results with a product's cost-effectiveness. It helps Master Builders Solutions and our customers decide which products are the best choice both ecologically and economically. 

Developed and used by Master Builders Solutions in its own product development process since 1996, EEA methodology follows ISO 14045 for eco-efficiency and ISO 14040 and 14044 norms for life cycle assessment. The methodology has been third-party validated by NSF International. 

Eco-Efficiency Analysis for concrete mixtures 

Since 2010, Master Builders Solutions has been using the EEA methodology to examine the environmental life cycle of sustainable concrete solutions, beginning with the extraction of raw materials through the production of concrete. This analysis quantifies the economic and ecological benefits of alternative concrete mixtures. 

There are two main outputs from this analysis: 

1 - An “Ecological Footprint” which provides a normalized environmental comparison of different product alternatives analyzed with standardized environmental categories. 

2 - An “Eco-Efficiency Portfolio” which considers social and statistical weighting factors to develop a single ecological impact for each concrete mixture balanced and plotted against the cost for each alternative mix. The most economical and ecological concrete mixes move directionally toward the upper right quadrant in the Eco-Efficiency Analysis portfolio. In this case, Concrete Mix 4 is shown as the most Eco-Efficient alternative. 

Eco-Efficiency Analysis examines different environmental categories to quantify the impact of a sustainable concrete mixture as compared to other concrete alternatives. An in-depth analysis is created for each concrete mixture for each impact category. An example Eco-Efficiency Analysis for Green Sense Concrete is highlighted here. 

The final product is a comprehensive, customized report that quantifies the environmental impact with practical equivalents for each concrete mix for all environmental impact categories. The report can be used internally or externally to position your company as a leader in sustainable construction through the use of sustainable concrete solutions.   

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) service for concrete 

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an ISO 14025 Type III environmental label that presents relevant and verified environmental information about goods and services, in this instance concrete, from a life cycle perspective. Each concrete EPD reports cradle-to-gate environmental impacts for a cubic meter of concrete. EPD are often compared to nutrition labels for food products. However, the EPD presents environmental impacts rather than nutritional facts. 

What does the Master Builders Solutions EPD service include? 

Our team of experts will create an EPD report and provide a seamless process to completion. Master Builders Solutions manages the entire process, including life cycle assessment based on a concrete producer’s mixture design, submission for third-party critical review and registration of the final document through the Program Operator. A final, professionally developed registered EPD will be placed on the Program Operator’s website and is available through a unique URL on the producer’s website. 

Learn more about Product Category Rules (PCR) for concrete by visiting Carbon Leadership Forum. View the NSF International registered EPDs here. 

Learn more about Master Builders Solutions in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.master-builders-solutions.com. 

Original article source: Master Builders Solutions