As the industry continues to work toward life cycle analysis of door and window products, and develop Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), the Aluminum Extruders Council will now develop EPDs to document the environmental performance of aluminum extrusions produced in the U.S. and Canada.

An EPD is an independently verified document that speaks to the lifecycle environmental impact of products. They include information on the impact of raw material acquisition, energy use, emissions, and waste generation, among other environmental factors.

“We expect these EPDs to be the most comprehensive assessment of North American produced extrusions to date,” says Jeff Henderson, AEC director of operations. “We currently have 11 AEC members providing information on 33 separate production locations and over 100 extrusion presses in the U.S. and Canada. In addition to the breadth of this study, we will also be providing previously unavailable detail, as we will produce separate EPDs for both conventional extrusions and thermally-improved extrusions.” In both cases, he says, data will be provided for both mill-finish extrusions and for product that has been painted or anodized.

According to AEC, data collection for the project is well underway, and the two EPDs—for thermally improved and conventional extrusions—are expected to be released later this year. AEC says their completion before October 31, the date after which LEED projects can no longer be registered under LEED 2009, but must use LEED v4, is likely.

“This is an important step forward for the extrusion industry and for the AEC,” says Guy Charpentier, and chairman of the AEC’s industrial promotion steering committee. “Providing transparency regarding our environmental performance with extensive, third-party verified data is a key element of aluminum extrusions’ great sustainability story.”