Making more informed choices with EPDs

It is now possible to purchase asphalt mixtures with known environmental impact, linked to the specific asphalt plants where they are produced. This provides the basis for more accurate environmental and climate calculations.

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are required for all types of constructions to measure a project’s environmental impact and to achieve sustainability goals. Today, it is still customary to use generic values. At NCC, however, we are not satisfied with this.

Using a third-party certified method of developing EPDs, linked to the asphalt plant from which the product originates, we are providing more content-specific information in EPDs in a manner that would otherwise not be possible using solely generic data.

We do this to:

  • Provide you, our customer, with a more transparent, fact-based and precise basis for your environmental and climate calculations
  • Identify actions that provide a measurable, reduced environmental impact in the production of asphalt products at a specific plant
  • Improve our own processes and identify best practice in the company to reduce our own activities’ environmental and climate footprint
  • Enable us to offer our customers the sector's most sustainable solutions for asphalt products

An EPD is more than a climate declaration

An EPD presents the environmental performance of a product from a life cycle perspective, in a transparent, objective and standardized way. An EPD not only includes a climate declaration, detailing greenhouse gas emissions, it also contains data on the product’s entire environmental impact, from eutrophication and acidification to the consumption of resources etc. Example of factors included in our calculations for an EPD for an asphalt plant are fuel, bitumen, adhesive agents and transport of raw materials.

Certified process provides more accurate values

Our accurate process to create a plant and product-specific EPD is certified by a third party, which also performs annual audits of the process. Each EPD from us is based on supplier data to ensure traceability throughout the supply chain for our asphalt products.

EPDs are creating pressure for change in the asphalt industry. We can now transparently and quantifiably demonstrate that we are involved in transforming our industry, moving it toward more environmentally adapted asphalt production and carbon neutrality.
Linda Löwhagen, EPD process manager NCC
Linda Löwhagen

Technical specialist Environment, Asphalt, NCC Industry