The American Galvanizers Association (AGA) has released an industry-wide Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for hot-dip galvanized steel after fabrication. The EPD was conducted by thinkstep, Inc. and verified by UL Environment, Inc., to meet the new requirements of LEED v4 Building Product Disclosure and Optimization (BPDO) credit for Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).
The EPD covers galvanized hot-rolled sections, plate and hollow structural sections (HSS) and includes data from AISC, the Steel Tube Institute (STI), the International Zinc Association (IZA) and North American AGA members.
The EPD also includes hot-dip galvanizing industry averages for energy demand, global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential and photochemical ozone creation potential from cradle (raw material acquisition) to gate (end of the galvanizing process). It also identifies credits for recycling done within the galvanizing process. According to Option 1 of the LEED v4 BPDO credit for EPDs, this industry-wide EPD provides one-half credit toward the requirement of 20 EPDs from at least five different manufacturers.
In addition to the comprehensive EPD, AGA has released three verified transparency briefs — one for each product in the EPD: galvanized hot-rolled structural sections, HDG steel plate and galvanized HSS. The transparency briefs are a quick snapshot of the environmental impacts of producing each of the galvanized products.
Use of the EPD is limited to North American AGA members. Member names are available at www.galvanizeit.org/galvanizers.