Blanket Insulation

Declaration details

Manufacturer

CertainTeed Saint-Gobain

Program operator

Smart EPD

Declaration number

SmartEPD-2024-019-0139-01

Date of issue

June 21, 2024

Valid until

June 21, 2029

Product category rules (PCR)

Part B: Building Envelope Thermal Insulation Products (version 3)

Standard

ISO 14025:2006 and ISO 21930:2017

Functional unit

1 m2 of material with RSI = 1m2K/W of product

System boundary

Cradle to gate with other options (A1 - A3, A4, A5, C1 - C4)

Product specificity

Product Average

Manufacturing specificity

Manufacturer Average

Manufacturing plants

CertainTeed Interior Products Group (Athens, GA) (425 Athena Dr, Athens, GA 30601, USA); CertainTeed (Ottawa, ON, Canada); CertainTeed Interior Products Group (Kansas City, KS) (103 Funston Rd, Kansas City, KS 66115, USA); Redcliff, AB (101 1 St NE, Redcliff, AB T0J 2P0, Canada); CertainTeed Interior Products Group (Chowchilla, CA) (17775 Ave 23 1/2, Chowchilla, CA 93610, United States)

Product category

ThermalMoistureProtection › Insulation › BlanketInsulation

Verifier

Anni Oviir

LCA software

GaBi 10.0

Program instructions

Smart EPD General Program Instructions v.1.0, November 2022

Life cycle assessment results

Results per 1 m2 of material with RSI = 1m2K/W of product.

Environmental Impact Assessment Results

Resource Use Indicators

Waste and Output Flow Indicators

Carbon Emissions and Removals

ND = not declared. Life cycle modules: A1-A3 product stage, A4-A5 construction process, B use stage, C end of life, D benefits and loads beyond the system boundary.

Material composition

Hazardous substances

No regulated hazardous or dangerous substances are included in this product.

Scenarios

Transport to the building site (A4)

Fuel type

Diesel

Vehicle type

Standard Freight Trailer

Transport distance

1140 km

Capacity utilization

85%

Weight of products transported

0.445 kg

End of life (C1-C4)

Collected with mixed construction waste

0.445 kg

Product or material for final disposal

0.445 kg

Product description

CertainTeed is dedicated to Building Responsibly with fiberglass insulation product that are engineered, produced and shipped with a commitment to minimizing environmental impact and improving energy savings. The Blanket Insulation products are composed of tan, uniformly textured, inorganic fibrous glass and bonded with a thermoset resin to form a blanket insulation. CertainTeed's Blanket insulation products Included in this EPD are: Metal Building Insulation, Canadian Metal Building Insulation, Metal Building Insulation Filler Blanket, High Temp Blanket, Universal Blanket. The sizes for the products in this EPD range from R-2.1 to R-30. These values indicate the insulation's resistance to heat transfer, with higher values indicating better insulation performance. This range of R-values makes CertainTeed's Universal Blanket insulation an excellent choice for various HVAC systems, from low to high-pressure systems. CertainTeed Blanket Insulation acts as both thermal and acoustical insulation in ceilings, walls and floors. The functional of the products reported in this document is 1 square meter of insulation material with a thickness that provides an average thermal resistance Rsi = 1m^2K/W (Rus=5.67) with a building service life of 60 years.

Interpretation

This study was conducted in adherence to ISO standards and best practices, and aimed to facilitate an in-depth understanding of the life cycle impacts of blanket insulation for internal use. All data pertaining to the operations of the five manufacturing locations, transportation distances, and modes of transportation were collected directly from CertainTeed. The collected data was then cross-checked for internal consistency, and verified with plant personnel. It is recommended that sub-metering of energy use be implemented at each critical stage of the manufacturing process to enable more detailed analysis. It is worth noting that the findings of this research are limited by the inherent uncertainty of creating a representative model through LCA. The modeling of the product system was based on representative processes and datasets, resulting in several assumptions. While quality control was undertaken at every step of building the LCI and conducting the LCIA, the results are not conclusive due to the fact that the data represents only one year of manufacturing information from five manufacturing locations. As such, detailed evaluation of more manufacturing plants and time periods would reduce the uncertainty. It is important to note that some level of uncertainty is inevitable while conducting LCA, and decision making must reflect this fact.

Based on the results from the life cycle assessment, the life cycle impacts are strongly driven by the manufacturing process. This may be driven by the increased use of electricity and potential process inefficiencies. Increasing energy efficiency would help to reduce the overall environmental impacts for all sites. Additionally, the energy-intensive processes involved, often relying on conventional grid electricity, can result in elevated carbon emissions and other environmental burdens. Therefore, a strategy to mitigate a small portion of this impact that cannot be reduced entirely by efficiency could be to install onsite renewables such as onsite solar panels. Offsite renewable energy may be considered a solution depending on future reporting standards. Raw materials play a pivotal role in determining the environmental impact of blanket insulation. Opting for materials with lower energy requirements and reduced environmental burdens, while maintaining insulation performance, can significantly contribute to the overall sustainability of the product. Moreover, identifying alternate uses or recycling options for the product at the end of its useful life will reduce the end-of-life and potential raw materials burdens of recycled product.

If possible, incorporating more recycled content (post-consumer cullet) into the product will help reduce the environmental impacts of the raw materials stage in the life cycle of the product. As recycled content increases, the impacts will decrease, thus improving the overall environmental impacts. Soda Ash and Borax are the largest contributors to the raw material impacts for the product, responsible for up to 72% of the global warming potential impacts to produce the glass fiber. Increasing the recycled content as mentioned above, will help decrease the usage of these larger contributors to the impacts.

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