by Jonathan McGaha | December 2, 2014 12:00 am
Product transparency matters. Whether or not you read labels at the grocery store, you understand why the FDA requires product ingredients and nutrition information to be listed on every package. People need the ability to make informed choices about what they put in their bodies.
What about the ingredients you put in your building? What about the substances that building inhabitants may be exposed to every day? What about the chemicals that could end up in the environment as a byproduct of manufacturing, decades of exposure to the elements, and recycling of materials at a building’s end-of-life?
There’s no FDA regulating building products, but the industry is taking action to provide architects and building owners with the product facts they need to make informed choices. In the MCM industry, ALPOLIC® Materials is leading the way.
Product Transparency Declarations: An industry first and an emerging industry standard
Only in the last few years has our industry begun to move definitively toward creating uniform standards for building materials. Today’s industry-wide standards include the MCM Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) introduced in 2011 by the Metal Construction Association (MCA), and the Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)[1] developed by MCA in collaboration with UL and introduced in 2013.
While EPDs and LCAs provide general environmental information they do not provide detailed information about the manufacturing processes, ingredients, lifecycle and health impacts of building materials.
That’s why we developed our Product Transparency Declarations (PTDs) – an industry first with a strong potential to become the next new industry standard.
Full ingredient and environmental impact disclosure at the product level
The advantage of our PTDs is that they provide transparency for specific products, not just typical industry practices. PTDs provide a standard template that lists:
PTDs contain the information architects and project owners need to make an informed decision about the products they choose and their potential impact on building inhabitants and the environment. Full disclosure also provides an incentive for the building products industry to move toward healthier, more sustainable processes and products.
PTDs available now for free download, only from ALPOLIC Materials
We’re currently participating on a committee working to formalize PTDs as an industry standard governed by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Until that goal becomes a reality, we’re offering PTDs as a voluntary disclosure for our most popular metal composite materials. You can download our PTDs here:
ALPOLIC/fr 4/6mm fire retardant ACM with 10/20/30 year exterior stock colors[2]
ALPOLIC PE 3mm polyethylene core ACM with 10/20/30 year exterior stock colors[3]
ALPOLIC PE 4/6mm polyethylene core ACM with 10/20/30 year exterior stock colors[4]
We also offer a downloadable
EPD for metal composite materials as manufactured and used across the building materials industry in North America. This industry-wide EPD was prepared by MCA in accordance with ISO 14025 and provides a wealth of information on the performance standards and “cradle to gate” lifecycle impacts of MCM panels.
These are just a few of the many technical resources[5] we provide on ALPOLIC’s website to help you make the best product and finish choices for your unique project.
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