ClarkDietrich has published an Environmental Product Declaration Optimization Report for its low-embodied-carbon cold-formed steel products, becoming the first steel framing manufacturer to have the data available to help achieve credit for Option Two under LEED v4.1’s “Material and Resources Credit: EPDs.”
“This is a significant milestone for ClarkDietrich and a game-changer for our customers seeking LEED v4.1 certification,” said Adam Shoemaker, ClarkDietrich’s director of corporate sustainability. “With this EPD Optimization Report, our LEC steel products now contribute to an additional point under LEED v4.1, contributing the same number of points/products as our LEC EPD published in March.”
Under LEED v4.1, building teams can earn up to two points for the MR Credit: EPDs. To earn these points, teams must achieve one or more of the following options:
- Option One: Environmental Product Declaration (one point)
- Option Two: Embodied Carbon/LCA Optimization (one point)
Option One requires that a project include at least 20 different products from at least five different manufacturers that meet certain disclosure criteria. Because ClarkDietrich’s LEC EPD is a product-specific Type III EPD, its LEC steel products count as 1.5 products toward the required 20 for Option One.
Option Two requires that projects include at least five products from at least three manufacturers that have a compliant embodied-carbon optimization report. With its new EPD Optimization Report, ClarkDietrich LEC steel products now count as 1.5 products toward the required five for Option Two. While Option Two requires fewer products than Option One, there are only a handful of products on the market that meet the criteria for Option Two.
“This is a major step forward in our commitment to sustainability,” Shoemaker said. “We’re proud to help our customers succeed and make a real difference in the built environment.”
The EPD Optimization Report is an independent-party-verified comparative analysis on ClarkDietrich’s LEC steel framing systems. The assessment provides a Cradle-to-Gate comparison of the company’s LEC EPD against its standard EPD as a baseline. The report concludes that ClarkDietrich LEC cold-formed steel framing systems offer more than a 10 percent reduction in global warming potential (in fact, it shows a 30.3 percent reduction in GWP).
To learn more about ClarkDietrich’s commitment to sustainability, visit clarkdietrich.com/sustainability.
