Knauf Insulation, Inc. was selected to receive a $3.28 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency titled Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products.

The grant-funded project will aim to improve the quantity, quality and robustness of data used to develop Environmental Product Declarations. The project will exemplify best practices relating to data disclosure and verification to spur market demand for low-embodied-carbon construction products. Embodied carbon refers to the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, transportation and disposal of a product or material. EPDs are standardized documents that disclose embodied carbon data, alongside other environmental impacts, based on comprehensive Life Cycle Assessments. LCAs evaluate a product’s environmental footprint from cradle to grave, considering the raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life phases. Construction industry professionals use EPDs to calculate the full life-cycle impact of a built environment, including the embodied carbon.

Knauf will use the grant funds to leverage technical expertise to perform LCAs, which will then be used for EPD development and verification. By making EPDs and LCAs readily available, Knauf enables consumers and industry professionals to make informed choices, favoring products with lower embodied carbon and contributing to a more sustainable built environment.

Knauf recently made a significant capital investment into facility energy-monitoring equipment that will measure individual processes and reveal efficiency improvement opportunities, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing. This energy data will now be available to improve the granularity and quality of data used for the development of EPDs.

“Transparency is embedded in our core values and [is] a key component of our business conduct,” explained Gabriela Fleury, Knauf North America’s director of sustainability. “It is imperative that our product documentation provides accurate, reliable and updated information to our stakeholders. This grant will leverage the development and improvement of EPDs, which not only allows clients to make informed decisions about lower-embodied-carbon products, but also indicate areas of improvement to lower greenhouse gas emissions throughout our operations.”

In cooperation with the EPA, Knauf’s team will begin this five-year project in 2024. The goal is to have updated EPDs for 100 percent of Knauf’s product portfolio, including new and optimized versions of current EPDs. In addition, Knauf will produce a best practice manual on EPD development for industry stakeholders and provide educational seminars to its employees at manufacturing facilities on greenhouse gas reductions.

“This grant represents a significant sustainability leap for all of our stakeholders,” said Knauf Insulation North America CEO Matt Parrish. “It enables us to enhance our EPD portfolio, meeting increasing market demands for product transparency.”