EPDs allow LANXESS to deliver transparent information about the life-cycle assessment of the pigments.
The specialty chemicals company LANXESS has announced that it will offer verified environmental product declarations (EPDs) for selected product groups of synthetic iron oxide pigments.
EPDs allow LANXESS to deliver comprehensive information about the cradle-to-gate environmental impact of the pigments. The information provided is based on the international ISO 14025 standard as well as the European EN 15804 standard for construction products and services of all kinds.
“Publishing EPDs is a mark of our commitment to setting the highest sustainability standards in the pigments industry. Our iron oxide pigments from the trusted Bayferrox brand are used to add color to concrete building materials as well as for paints and plastics employed in the construction industry worldwide. With EPD verification of our core products, we are making our commitment to life-cycle assessments plain to see for our customers.”” stated Michael Ertl, the head of the Inorganic Pigments (IPG) business unit of LANXESS.
The environmental product declarations are used within the industry to describe construction materials, products and/or components in terms of environmental impact. The EPDs for Bayferrox pigments from LANXESS, based on both life-cycle assessments and the functional and technical properties of the pigments, are tested in accordance with international standards by the Institut für Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU), an independent third-party association of building product manufacturers.
“We are delighted that as a manufacturer of raw materials, LANXESS is striving to deliver this transparency at the product level and thereby enabling its customers in the construction product industry to make much more accurate assessments of the environmental impact of their products,” commented Alexander Röder, the managing director of IBU.
EPDs also add transparency on the environmental profiles of the pigments and offer the possibility to compare iron oxide products from different raw material suppliers, allowing manufacturers of building materials to optimise the life-cycle assessments of their own products.
“If raw materials used in production have verified EPDs, as with our Bayferrox brand, these can be taken into account in the construction material’s life-cycle assessment and have a positive influence,” added Holger Wendt, the head of the Construction market segment at IPG.
“We are very much aware of our responsibility to society, which is why sustainability is a guiding principle for our activities. However, it is also becoming more and more of a competitive advantage in increasing our appeal to customers and talented prospective employees as well as on the capital market. By modifying our incentive systems and our structures, we are making sustainability an even more integral part of our company,” concluded the CEO of LANXESS, Matthias Zachert.