Smith & Fong Co. has announced it has completed an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for its bamboo plywood range, including LinearSound, Fractal, Reveal and other carved design panels.
The EDP and LCA, granted by ASTM International and in accordance with ISO 14025 is applicable to both the North American and European marketplaces. “Having a Environmental Product Declaration and Life Cycle Assessment for our panel products is important to the architectural and design community we service,” Smith & Fong founder and CEO Dan Smith states. “We are proud to have them available.”
ASTM International is globally recognized in the development and delivery of voluntary consensus standards. Today, more than 12,000 ASTM standards are used around the world to improve product quality, enhance health and safety, strengthen market access and trade, and build consumer confidence.
Environmental product declarations provide environmental data to compare various products and their environmental impacts. To create comparable EPDs, they must follow the same rules and guidelines, called product category rules.
Life Cycle Assessment is a technique to qualify environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair, maintenance, disposal and/or recycling. Designers use this process to help critique the products they specify.
LCAs can help avoid a narrow outlook on environmental concerns by:
- Compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases
- Evaluating the potential impacts associated with identified inputs and releases
- Interpreting the results to help make an informed decision
“We continue to strive for transparency in our manufacturing process,” Smith says. “And we have manufactured to ASTM standards for years, without seeking certification. We believe this will push the panel industry in a positive direction, and we’re proud to be one of the manufacturer/suppliers to make this commitment.”