New industrywide clay brick EPD launched

The Brick Industry Association (BIA) has launched a new industrywide clay brick Environmental Product Declaration.

The EPD contributes toward LEED v.4.0 and v.4.1 materials and resources requirements. The EPD has been third-party certified and published, reflecting data associated with the manufacture of units that comply with nearly every currently active ASTM clay brick specification, according to a news release from BIA.

“The Brick Industrywide EPD represents the average environmental impact of clay brick production in the U.S. and Canada,” the release says. “The data for the EPD captures 32% of 2018 brick production submitted by 13 different manufacturers from plants in 14 states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada. The range of data includes brick formed by the stiff-mud and soft-mud processes and includes brick made in tunnel and periodic kilns.”

Products from an industrywide EPD are valued by LEED v4.1 as one whole product for the purposes of the credit achievement calculation. LEED v4.0 awards a value of one-half for these products. A total of 20 products are required on a project to receive this credit.