Tata Steel has published its first Environmental Product Declaration for steel reinforcing bar (Rebar) used in Reinforced Cement Concrete construction, to provide product-specific sustainability information to customers.
The company plans to affix eco-labels (GreenPro and EPD) for its key products and maximise the coverage of its products across sites under Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), to support customers with product-related sustainability disclosures. The company has already received GreenPro certification (Type I eco-label) for many of its construction products.
EPDs are Type III eco-labels that declares the product’s lifecycle environmental impact over various indicators. EPD is a requirement in green building projects, for scoring the required credit points as part of the building materials category. It is also seen as a verified document that communicates a product’s lifecycle environmental impact for disclosure purposes.
The LCA study for developing the EPD for steel products has been done in line with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. LCA allows companies to evaluate their product’s environmental performance over its entire lifecycle. It typically takes into consideration the full value chain, from material extraction to manufactured product, its usage stage, and end-of-life impacts.
Sanjiv Paul, Vice-President, Tata Steel, said the EPD initiative is yet another effort to provide transparent environmental disclosures to discerning customers, to enable them to make sustainable choices while complying with global regulations.
Last fiscal, Tata Steel became the first steel rebar manufacturing company to receive GreenPro certification for its Tata Tiscon TMT rebars.