ASTM International enters the LCA arena as a program operator for Product Category Rules and Environmental Product Declarations

ASTM International announced its new initiative as a program operator for Product Category Rules and Environmental Product Declarations. The goal of the program is to assist product manufacturers in developing PCRs and verifying EPDs. Also known as eco-labels, EPDs disclose the life cycle environmental performance of a product. The labels are similar to the nutritional labels for the food industry. Product Category Rules ensure everyone measuring the environmental impacts of a product does so in the same way.

In the glazing market, “Today eco-labeling is a differentiator. Tomorrow, it may be a ticket to play,” said Helen Sanders, vice president, technical business development, SAGE Electrochromics, during her presentation “Eco-labeling is Coming: Is the Glazing Industry Ready?” at GlassBuild America. “In the future, you may not be able to sell a window without an eco-label,” she said.

Currently, the Department of Energy, through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is sponsoring the development of product category rules for windows, through a joint AAMA/GANA/IGMA/WDMA task group.

ASTM International's program "will provide scientifically based, quantifiable information about product parameters such as resource consumption and ozone depletion, which will give both businesses and consumers an understanding of a product's real impact on the environment," said Timothy Brooke, vice president of certification, training and proficiency testing, ASTM International, in a release.