News Brief

Cladding Industry Agrees to One Rulebook for Conducting LCAs

One set of rules, called a PCR, now governs environmental reporting for all cladding products, regardless of whether they are wood, vinyl, or metal.

There used to be 14 different ways to conduct an LCA on a cladding product.

Public Domain
Cladding is the latest product category for which a general industry product category rule (PCR) has been set, joining others like concrete and flat glass. PCRs designate the rules for life-cycle assessment calculations if they are to be used for environmental product declarations (EPDs).

This cladding PCR is of particular interest because it supersedes 14 different material-specific PCRs already on the market, a situation that has led to dubious claims about which systems and materials have the lowest life-cycle impacts (see Cladding: More Than Just a Pretty Façade).

Now that the rules have been standardized across the industry, resulting EPDs are more likely to be a useful comparative instrument.

More on life-cycle assessments of cladding

Cladding: More Than Just a Pretty Façade

The Product Transparency Movement: Peeking Behind the Corporate Veil

Published July 29, 2015

Pearson, C. (2015, July 29). Cladding Industry Agrees to One Rulebook for Conducting LCAs. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/cladding-industry-agrees-one-rulebook-conducting-lcas

Add new comment

To post a comment, you need to register for a BuildingGreen Basic membership (free) or login to your existing profile.