Glass Is a Sustainable Solution

Architectural firms and local regulatory bodies increasingly require data disclosing the environmental impact of building materials. The National Glass Association has consistently collaborated with industry to help companies meet these evolving criteria by facilitating the creation of several product category rules for glazing and fenestration products, as well as industry average environmental product declarations, or EPDs. 

The association is now partnering with TrueNorth Collective, a sustainability consultancy, to refine these needed resources further, while also facilitating member companies’ participation in the EPD creation process. By encouraging accountability and transparency among manufacturers, suppliers, fabricators and even consumers, glass can continue to be a forerunner in the market of sustainable materials.

A partnership to provide actionable data

In partnering with TrueNorth Collective, NGA is working to advise members on how best to compile resources that many in the industry can use, as well as provide members with the tools to measure and report their own environmental impacts. Individual companies’ internal operational data will be kept completely confidential, while giving companies the ability to provide environmental impact information on the products that their customers and architects need.

One of the first steps of the collaboration among TrueNorth Collective and NGA members will be to update the Product Category Rules for flat glass and processed/fabricated glass. A Product Category Rule, known as a PCR, specifies the methodology for conducting a life cycle assessment, or LCA, which quantifies the environmental impacts resulting from the creation of a product as well as its impact on the environment throughout its life cycle as a building material. Based on the information gathered through the LCA, the PCR provides guidelines for creating an EPD, which discloses the environmental impacts of a product or product type. This includes information on the embodied carbon of the product requested by architects, green building programs and certain states.  

Developing an EPD can be a time-intensive and expensive process, and increasingly architects and other building stakeholders require EPDs or embodied carbon data for products more specific than the industry-wide averages the NGA has published. Through this new collaboration with TrueNorth Collective, NGA is working to empower the industry by making this process easier.

TrueNorth Collective will assist NGA with the development of the new PCRs and the creation of an EPD generator tool, which will empower NGA member companies to quickly and cost-effectively create their own EPDs. This will benefit NGA member companies of all sizes, and especially smaller companies that otherwise could not afford to complete the LCA and develop individual EPDs on their own. 

While data collected for the creation of an EPD identifies the environmental impacts of manufacturing glass and glazing, it can also offer companies insights into more sustainable and efficient manufacturing processes that may provide other benefits to business processes. The same tools for developing EPDs can also be used by companies to compile and report Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions as is required by some corporations and states.

In all stages of the project, a steering committee comprised of NGA member companies will be engaged with staff from both NGA and TrueNorth Collective to ensure the needs and perspectives of the members are always heard, especially with data-intensive processes such as LCAs. NGA thanks our members in advance for their efforts and expertise.

We at NGA see glass as part of the sustainability solution. To learn more about the work being done by our task groups and the many resources from the NGA advocating for a sustainable future for the glass industry, visit glass.org/advocacy/initiatives/sustainability.