THE EPD AND LIFE CYCLE OF CERAMIC MATERIALS

The Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) provides reliable, relevant, transparent and verified information on whether a certain product is environmentally friendly throughout its life cycle. The EPD is based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of that product, which objectively collects and evaluates the use of resources associated with its life cycle, both "inputs" (energy, raw materials and water), such as "outputs" (environmental emissions to air, water and land). The EPD information is structured into various impact categories (global warming, ozone layer depletion, etc.) along with other additional information such as waste generated.

EPSs are currently voluntary certifications. However, some private initiatives with certification schemes for sustainable buildings, such as LEED and BREEAM, are helping to promote in Spain the EPDs necessary to make comparisons based on LCA considering these schemes.

ispalyt (Spanish Association of Fired Clay Brick and Tile Manufacturers) wanted to demonstrate through the following EPDs ceramic products have excellent environmental behavior throughout their entire life cycle (from cradle to grave):

Ceramic bricks	Ceramic roof toiles
Ceramic bricks and blocks cladding	Fired clay vaults and caissons
Ceramic pavers	Ceramic boards

Hispalyt's EPDs have been verified and published in AENOR's GlobalEPd program, which certifies the environmental excellence of ceramic products. The owner of these EPDs is Hispalyt, which means only its partners may use them and they will be obtained through the manufacturer associated with Hispalyt that is going to supply the ceramic material in the work, which will also deliver a certificate issued by Hispalyt , to validate the use of the DAP in particular work which the product is going to be used in.