Heidelberg Materials North America is set to receive US$5m in funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the development of a cloud-based tool that produces environmental product declarations (EPDs) for building materials.
An EPD is a standardised declaration of a product’s lifecycle assessment that shows its impact on the environment. EPDs are vital for transparency on the carbon footprint of a product.
The project aims to develop a tool that substantially enhances the EPD creation process by using full AI-based automation capabilities, minimising time spent on consuming manual tasks. Processes that will be automated involve data collection and third-party data verification, meaning the EPDs can be verified very quickly.
“The acknowledgment by the EPA highlights our innovative spirit when it comes to developing digital solutions that drive sustainability within our industry, Dennis Lentz, chief digital officer and member of the managing board of Heidelberg Materials announced. “I’m proud that the project will contribute to further decarbonising our business, increasing operational efficiency, and ultimately benefit our customers”.
The funding is part of the EPA’s ‘Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant’, which aims to promote clean manufacturing in the US. Heidelberg Materials is among a selection of 38 grant recipients across the US, who are set to receive a total of approximately US$160m to further reduce the climate impacts from the building materials sector.
