An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is an independently verified and registered document that communicates transparent and comparable data and other relevant environmental information about the life-cycle environmental impact of a product.
The relevant standard for Environmental Product Declarations is ISO 14025, where they are referred to as “type III environmental declarations”. A type III environmental declaration is created and registered in the framework of a programme, such as EPD Australasia.
For designers, the EPD provides accurate, independently verified information on the environmental footprint of Comfortech™ products, previously Tasman Insulation New Zealand. The EPD can be used to make informed decisions when specifying insulation, by taking into account aspects such as the product’s carbon footprint, energy used in manufacturing and waste created. It also offers designers the potential to gain Green Star credits under the innovation category and Home Star under ‘MAT 1 – Sustainable Material’ category
Pink® Batts® insulation is the only New Zealand made segment insulation product to have an associated Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). Our EPD is the result of a concerted effort to measure and improve the environmental impact our New Zealand manufacturing processes and plant for Pink® Batts® insulation products — a process which started with an initial life cycle assessment (LCA) completed by Thinkstep Ltd. in 2010.
“The EPD highlights the synergy between the efforts we have made to lower the impact of our manufacturing process and the finished product which is designed to save energy and play its part in reducing our country’s carbon emissions while improving the health, wellbeing and comfort of New Zealanders,” says Michael Burgess, Comfortech™. “Essentially – we’re making a product designed to save energy, out of recycled materials in a low-impact way, and the EPD proves this.”
Verified by The Australasian EPD Programme, the EPD is based on data from a second life cycle assessment, performed by Thinkstep in 2018, which highlights the tremendous work Comfortech™ has done to improve the sustainability of their manufacturing processes.
“What was noticeable about the work Comfortech™ have done is that they have been on that journey for a long time. So the driver wasn’t for them to quickly get an LCA study done, the driver was to understand the impacts of their products and go the extra step.”
Barbara Nebel, Director of Thinkstep
Some key improvements Comfortech Building Performance Solutions™ has made in the manufacturing of Pink® Batts® insulation products include:
30% reduction in global warming potential: achieved by improvements in plant efficiency, driven by a reduction in consumption of natural gas.
50% reduction in acidification potential of land and water: achieved by improvements in binder technology, more efficient application of binder and plant operational efficiency.
65% reduction in Eutrophication potential: Achieved by improvements in binder technology and water conservation at the plant.
55% reduction in photochemical ozone creation potential: Achieved by improvements in binder technology and plant operational efficiency.