The environmental impact of cement production in Europe: A holistic review of existing EPDs



Juarez, Roberto Ivan Cruz and Finnegan, Stephen ORCID: 0000-0003-4003-0872
(2021) The environmental impact of cement production in Europe: A holistic review of existing EPDs. CLEANER ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS, 3. p. 100053.

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Abstract

With operational emissions of buildings being targeted with regulations, embodied emissions are becoming a greater area of opportunity in the quest to reduce the pollution coming from the built environment. The cement industry accounts for 5% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, responsible for global warming, but it also has other negative effects on the environment which are sometimes overlooked. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are increasingly being used as an accepted way of comparing the environmental performance of products in the construction industry. Nevertheless, they still face challenges, mainly in their standardisation efforts. EPDs present advantages to the comparison of a wide range of pollutant emissions, not only the ones responsible for global warming, but also ozone depletion, acidification of soil and water, eutrophication, formation of tropospheric ozone photochemical oxidants and abiotic depletion of fossil and non-fossil resources. This review paper looks at how the emission data in current EPDs for cement mixes is presented and compares the available information between mixes produced by different companies across several locations in Europe. It also explores the challenges this kind of comparison presents, emphasising the need for international standardization in the reporting of pollutant emissions.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Cement, Construction industry, Embodied emissions, Environmental product declaration (EPD), Life cycle assessment (LCA), Global warming potential (GWP)
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 01 Sep 2021 08:26
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 21:30
DOI: 10.1016/j.cesys.2021.100053
Open Access URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3135443