Client
The Spanish Institute of Cement and its Applications (IECA) is a private, technical institute dedicated to the study, consultancy, and dissemination of knowledge and technologies related to cement, concrete, and their derivative products.
Repte
To design a tool for calculating Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for cement factories associated with OFICEMEN, the Agrupation of Cement Manufacturers of Spain. The tool had to enable the calculation of both sectoral and individual EPDs and anticipate the obligation to declare the environmental performance of cements under the new Construction Products Regulation.
What was done?
The èdit tool, inèdit’s environmental quantification solution, was customized according to the specific characteristics of the cements associated with OFICEMEN and in accordance with the UNE-EN 16908 and UNE-EN 15804 standards.
The tool allows different manufacturers to carry out the analysis from the extraction, production, and supply of raw materials to the production of cement (stages A1 to A3) for their various products, and to assess 40 indicators and impact categories. This means the tool offers the advantage of allowing unlimited products to be included, enabling the mass generation of EPDs.
The new Declaration of Performance and Conformity must include, in the case of cement, the Global Warming Potential before June 2027. The tool adopts a dynamic approach with annual calculations, which will be included as an informational element under AENOR’s NS mark.
To customize èdit, inèdit worked jointly with IECA to define the calculation methodology and the inventory elements to be used.
Results
1
A customized EPD calculation tool for the cement sector was delivered, verified by AENOR, and is now in continuous improvement. IECA provides this tool to its member companies so they can calculate and verify their EPDs and the Global Warming Potential of their products.
~10
Currently, nearly a dozen cement manufacturers are regular users of the tool. Companies such as CEMEX, Cementos Portland Valderrivas, Votorantim, Çimsa, and Molins have already used it to calculate and verify the EPDs for all their cement products, reinforcing transparency and adapting to increasingly demanding regulations.
Conclusions
Thanks to this tool, companies associated with OFICEMEN are able to calculate the EPDs and product CO₂ emissions of all their cement types quickly and rigorously, and obtain verification by AENOR.
Having third-party verified EPDs not only strengthens their commitment to transparency and provides added assurance to clients, but also prepares companies for a more demanding regulatory framework.
Moreover, public administrations are increasingly promoting green public procurement through mechanisms such as the Green Public Procurement Plan of the Spanish General State Administration, which increasingly values EPDs as a key criterion in public tenders.
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