News Brief

Cladding Industry Agrees to One Rulebook for Conducting LCAs

One set of rules, called a PCR, now governs environmental reporting for all cladding products, regardless of whether they are wood, vinyl, or metal.

by Candace Pearson

There used to be 14 different ways to conduct an LCA on a cladding product.

Public Domain
Cladding is the latest product category for which a general industry product category rule (PCR) has been set, joining others like concrete and flat glass. PCRs designate the rules for life-cycle assessment calculations if they are to be used for environmental product declarations (EPDs).

This cladding PCR is of particular interest because it supersedes 14 different material-specific PCRs already on the market, a situation that has led to dubious claims about which systems and materials have the lowest life-cycle impacts (see Cladding: More Than Just a Pretty Façade).

Now that the rules have been standardized across the industry, resulting EPDs are more likely to be a useful comparative instrument.

More on life-cycle assessments of cladding

Cladding: More Than Just a Pretty Façade

The Product Transparency Movement: Peeking Behind the Corporate Veil

Published July 29, 2015

Pearson, C. (2015, July 29). Cladding Industry Agrees to One Rulebook for Conducting LCAs. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/cladding-industry-agrees-one-rulebook-conducting-lcas

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