Engineered Cast Steel Products

Declaration details

Manufacturer

Cast Connex Corporation

Program operator

Smart EPD

Declaration number

SmartEPD-2024-041-0189-01

Date of issue

October 16, 2024

Valid until

October 16, 2029

Product category rules (PCR)

Smart EPD® Part A Product Category Rules for Building and Construction Products and Services (version 1.01)

Standard

ISO 14025:2006 and EN 15804+A2

Declared unit

1 tonne of product

System boundary

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

Product specificity

Product Average

Manufacturing specificity

Facility Specific

Manufacturing plant

Electro Aco Altona S.A. (Rua Engenheiro Paul Werner, 925 - Itoupava Seca, Blumenau - State of Santa Catarina, Brazil)

Product category

Steel

Verifier

Lindita Bushi, Athena Sustainable Materials Institute

LCA software

GaBi 10.0

Program instructions

Smart EPD General Program Instructions v.1.0, November 2022

Life cycle assessment results

Results per 1 tonne 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

End of life (C1-C4)

Collected separately

1000 kg

Reuse

40 kg

Recycling

940 kg

Landfill

20 kg

Product or material for final disposal

20 kg

Benefits and loads beyond the system boundary (D)

Recycling rate of product

94%

Recycled content of product

98%

Product description

CAST CONNEX standard and custom steel connectors are used in architectural applications for buildings and bridges to provide structural performance, attractive appearance, and construction economy. CAST CONNEX products are often used for geometrically complex connections, heavily loaded connections, connections with special loading conditions, and applications in which connections are left exposed and appearance is important. The product is made from casted steel, mainly from recycled steel scrap, with a density of approximately 7800 kg/m3.

Interpretation

The results of the LCA indicate that the electricity is the largest contributor to the CAST CONNEX product footprint across most impact categories. Electricity contributes up to 73% of climate change impacts. Alloying element use is also a significant contributor, comprising the largest share of the Eutrophication Potential, freshwater (EPfw), Resource use, minerals and metals (ADPm), and Human toxicity, cancer (HTP-c) category results. Alloying element use is also a significant contributor. Impacts of the alloying elements used in cast steel produced at Altona are driven by manganese feedstocks. The direct emissions of the steelmaking process are small compared to the impact of raw material and energy use. The steel feedstock is a scrap product so the upstream burden is zero, therefore it does not contribute to the product footprint. Inbound transportation of the steel product to the foundry is included and is a small contributor to the product footprint.

Impacts of deconstruction and end of life are driven by diesel and electricity use in the deconstruction (C1) module. Transport of materials to waste processing and end of life (C2) is small.

Module D results in a slight overall burden or slight benefit across the impact categories assessed. Given the majority of the product is scrap material, even with a demonstrated high recycling rate, slightly more scrap is consumed by the product system than is produced at end-of-life.

The study timeframe is for the year 2021 for Cast Connex manufacturing at Altona in Brazil. This study does not include comparisons or benchmarking. Environmental declarations from different programs based upon different PCRs may not be comparable.