Environmental Product Declaration
Steel Plate
by Nucor
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for Steel Plate, manufactured by Nucor. Declaration SmartEPD-2024-045-0207-01.1, prepared according to UL Part B: Designated Steel Construction Products, valid until December 4, 2029.
- Declared unit
- 1 metric ton of product
- Valid until
- December 4, 2029
- PCR
- UL Part B: Designated Steel Construction Products
Declaration details
- Manufacturer
- Nucor
- Program operator
- Smart EPD
- Declaration number
- SmartEPD-2024-045-0207-01.1
- Date of issue
- December 4, 2024
- Valid until
- December 4, 2029
- Product category rules (PCR)
- UL Part B: Designated Steel Construction Products (version 2)
- Standard
- ISO 14025:2006 and ISO 21930:2017
- Declared unit
- 1 metric ton of product
- System boundary
- Cradle to gate (A1 - A3)
- Product specificity
- Product Average
- Manufacturing specificity
- Facility Specific
- Manufacturing plant
- Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa (1700 Holt Road Northeast, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA)
- Product category
- Steel › StructuralSteel › PlateSteel
- Verifier
- Thomas P Gloria, Industrial Ecology Consultants
- LCA software
- Pathways 1.0
- Program instructions
- Smart EPD General Program Instructions v.1.0, November 2022
Life cycle assessment results
Results per 1 metric ton of product.
Environmental Impact Assessment Results
| Indicator | Unit | A1 | A2 | A3 | A1-A3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GWP-total | kg CO2 eq | 3.71e+2 | 2.35e+1 | 5.56e+2 | 9.51e+2 |
| ODP | kg CFC 11 eq | 4.38e-6 | 2.23e-7 | 6.69e-6 | 1.13e-5 |
| AP | kg SO2 eq | 1.84e+0 | 2.74e-1 | 1.04e+0 | 3.15e+0 |
| EP | kg N eq | 1.44e+0 | 3.90e-2 | 2.42e+0 | 3.90e+0 |
| POCP | kg O3 eq | 2.48e+1 | 7.22e+0 | 1.78e+1 | 4.98e+1 |
| ADP-fossil | MJ | 2.08e+3 | 8.29e+1 | 7.12e+3 | 9.28e+3 |
Resource Use Indicators
| Indicator | Unit | A1 | A2 | A3 | A1-A3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RPRE | MJ, LHV | 2.17e+2 | 7.00e-1 | 6.39e+1 | 2.82e+2 |
| RPRM | MJ, LHV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| NRPRE | MJ, LHV | 2.21e-3 | 8.29e+1 | 3.32e+3 | 3.40e+3 |
| NRPRM | MJ, LHV | 8.77e+1 | 0 | 3.96e+2 | 4.84e+2 |
| SM | kg | 1.62e+0 | 4.09e-2 | 9.58e-1 | 2.62e+0 |
| RSF | MJ, LHV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| NRSF | MJ, LHV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FW | m3 | 6.49e+0 | 1.00e-2 | 1.38e+0 | 7.88e+0 |
Waste and Output Flow Indicators
| Indicator | Unit | A1 | A2 | A3 | A1-A3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HWD | kg | 6.63e+1 | 1.18e-1 | 8.11e+1 | 1.48e+2 |
| NHWD | kg | 1.24e+3 | 1.69e+0 | 2.05e-3 | 1.24e+3 |
| HLRW | kg | 4.56e-4 | 3.07e-6 | 2.87e-4 | 7.46e-4 |
| ILLRW | kg | 9.62e-4 | 7.37e-6 | 6.36e-4 | 1.61e-3 |
| CRU | kg | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MFR | kg | -1.69e+2 | 8.80e-3 | 1.59e+0 | -1.67e+2 |
| MER | kg | 2.92e-4 | 2.18e-6 | 1.09e-4 | 4.03e-4 |
| EE | MJ, LHV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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
| Material/Component Category | Origin | % Mass |
|---|---|---|
| Steel Scrap | 79 | |
| Alloying Elements | 2 | |
| Direct Reduced Iron | 19 |
Hazardous substances
No regulated hazardous or dangerous substances are included in this product.
Product description
Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa offers a wide range of gauges, widths, lengths, and grades that are customized to meet each individual customer’s precise specifications. Steel plates are flat-rolled to their final thickness by rolling at high temperatures on a hot-rolling mill. Hot-rolled plate steel can then either be packaged and transported off site for distribution or be further processed at an off-site fabricator. For use in the construction market, the steel plates are detailed, cut, drilled, bolted, welded and otherwise processed at the fabricator to be prepared for installation. The steel plate in this EPD represents product manufactured in North America.
Interpretation
The results of the LCA indicate that Module A3 is the largest contributor to Nucor’s product footprint across impact categories. Module A1 is also a significant contributor.
Impacts of Module A3 include electricity, fuel consumption (gasoline, diesel, and propane), as well as process materials. Impacts of Module A1 include the steel scrap and alloying elements, with alloying elements being the highest contributor to impacts. Module A2 contains inbound transport of the steel to the facility and is a small contributor to the product footprint.
Assumptions include allocation of process materials, energy use, process gasses, and packaging from whole facility to Nucor's products. This has a minimal effect as the variation in the input amounts would affect the inbound transportation impacts, but the steel enters the facility burden free. Assumptions around inbound transport distances for certain materials will have minimal effect. Distances were approximated using approximate supplier locations and GPS mapping. Transport is not a major contributor to the result. The analysis also only includes products made only at Nucor's Tuscaloosa facility and is only applicable to products manufactured at the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States facility,
The study timeframe is for the year 2023 for Nucor manufacturing at their Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States manufacturing facility. This study does not include comparisons or benchmarking. Environmental declarations from different programs based upon different PCRs may not be comparable.
LCIA results are relative expressions and do not predict impacts on category endpoints, the exceeding of thresholds, safety margins or risks. EPDs are comparable only when they follow the same PCR, functional unit and system boundary. The full EPD (PDF) contains the methodology, scenario assumptions and verification statement.