Technical specialist Environment, Asphalt, NCC Industry

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.
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.
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
By analyzing the environmental performance using EPDs, we – together with you the customer and our suppliers – can jointly develop our processes to reduce the total environmental impact across the chain, all the way to the finished paving.
For you, the customer, this entails:
Working actively with life cycle assessment and EPDs to develop our own processes is a natural feature of NCC’s efforts to achieve climate-neutral activities. Since the life cycle assessment is based on the activities of the specific asphalt plant, we can precisely analyze which processes and production steps have the greatest environmental impact and focus our efforts on these. The work also clarifies the differences between our asphalt plants, making it possible to share valuable knowledge and best practices within the company. Through short and long-term process improvements, we can continue to offer the industry's most sustainable asphalt solutions.
Our EPDs are published at environdec.com.