PIMA Announces First North American Environmental Product Declarations for Polyiso Roof and Wall Insulation

Consistent with its leadership in the delivery of energy-efficient and sustainable building insulation solutions, the Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA) today announced the receipt of third party-verified ISO-compliant Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for polyisocyanurate (polyiso) roof and wall insulations. These products are manufactured by PIMA members across North America. Furthermore, an EPD is an internationally recognized and standardized tool that reports the environmental impacts of products.

These EPDs show that polyiso roof and wall insulation can save energy. Over a typical 60-year building lifespan, it can be up to 47 times the initial energy needed for production, transport, installation, maintenance, and disposal. Polyiso insulation offers a high return on embodied energy. It provides a high unit R-value per inch. Additionally, it has zero ozone depletion potential. It contains recycled content and allows for reuse. Finally, it demonstrates outstanding fire performance.

PIMA polyiso EPD

The PIMA polyiso EPDs not only deliver consistent and comparable environmental impact data, but they also offer comprehensive information about energy characteristics. Furthermore, polyiso roof and wall insulation provides a high net return on energy, which underscores the sustainability of polyiso products. In addition, these features showcase the significant role these products play in enhancing energy efficiency in buildings. By using polyiso insulation, architects and builders can achieve substantial reductions in energy consumption throughout a structure’s lifecycle. Consequently, this approach not only improves operational costs but also reduces the overall carbon footprint. Moreover, these EPDs serve as valuable resources for industry professionals, helping them meet stringent environmental regulations while addressing consumer demands for greener building practices. Ultimately, this collective effort fosters a shift towards a more sustainable built environment.

Environmental Impacts

The environmental impacts reported in the PIMA polyiso EPDs are derived from independently verified cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) process. This process includes all critical elements related to the resourcing, production, transport, installation, maintenance, and eventual removal and replacement of polyiso roof and wall insulation.

Using the LCA process, the PIMA polyiso roof and wall insulation products are evaluated on a number of impact categories including global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, eutrophication potential, acidification potential, and smog creation potential. Other environmental indicators evaluated include primary energy demand, resource depletion, waste to disposal, waste to energy, and water use.

PIMA polyiso roof and wall insulation EPDs meet the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED® v4 requirements. They qualify under Credit MRC-2 for Building Product Disclosure and Optimization: Environmental Product Declarations. These documents serve as industry-wide or generic declarations. They count as half of an eligible product when calculating credits.

Third-Party EPD for Polyiso Roof and Wall Insulation

These third-party verified EPDs for polyiso roof and wall insulation products produced by PIMA manufacturers show our industry’s commitment to sustainability and transparency in reporting environmental performance, said Jared Blum, President of PIMA. These EPDs serve as a valuable tool for providing environmental information to all building and design professionals. They are especially helpful in meeting emerging criteria for green building design.

The PIMA polyiso roof and wall EPDs derive from ISO-compliant LCA studies by PE International. In addition, Underwriters Laboratories published the Product Category Rule (PCR), which essentially sets the standard for these EPDs (UL 110116 Product Category Rule for Building Thermal Insulation). Furthermore, NSF verified the EPDs through third-party assessment. Additionally, the EPDs show impact data that represent the weighted average production for all PIMA members.

Sources

Copies of the PIMA polyiso roof and wall insulation EPDs may be downloaded from PIMA (http://www.polyiso.org) and from NSF International (http://www.NSF.org). These documents are also available from PIMA members.

WASHINGTON, DC, February 10, 2015