e product declaration ecotouch insulation for flexible duct · ecotouch® insulation for flexible...

ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION

ECOTOUCH® INSULATION FOR FLEXIBLE DUCT

Owens Corning, and its family of companies, is a leading global producer of residential and commercial building materials, glass fiber reinforcements, and engineered materials for composite systems. Founded in 1938, Owens Corning has earned its reputation as a market leading innovator of FIBERGLAS™ technology by consistently providing new solutions that deliver a strong combination of quality and value to its customers across the world. Building Material products – primarily roofing and insulation – are focused on making new and existing homes and buildings energy efficient, comfortable, and attractive. Owens Corning is committed to balancing economic growth with social progress and sustainable solutions to its building materials and composites customers around the world. This Environmental Product Declaration is a component of our stated goal to provide life cycle information on all core products.

www.owenscorning.com

EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct

©2015 UL LLC. All Rights Reserved


According to ISO 14025 and EN 15804

This declaration is an environmental product declaration (EPD) in accordance with ISO 14025. EPDs rely on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to provide information on a number of environmental impacts of products over their life cycle. Exclusions: EPDs do not indicate that any environmental or social performance benchmarks are met, and there may be impacts that they do not encompass. LCAs do not typically address the site-specific environmental impacts of raw material extraction, nor are they meant to assess human health toxicity. EPDs can complement but cannot replace tools and certifications that are designed to address these impacts and/or set performance thresholds – e.g. Type 1 certifications, health assessments and declarations, environmental impact assessments, etc. Accuracy of Results: EPDs regularly rely on estimations of impacts, and the level of accuracy in estimation of effect differs for any particular product line and reported impact. Comparability: EPDs are not comparative assertions and are either not comparable or have limited comparability when they cover different life cycle stages, are based on different product category rules or are missing relevant environmental impacts. EPDs from different programs may not be comparable.

PROGRAM OPERATOR UL Environment DECLARATION HOLDER Owens Corning DECLARATION NUMBER 4786077032.111.1 DECLARED PRODUCT EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct REFERENCE PCR PCR Building Envelope Thermal Insulation v1.3 (June 1, 2014) DATE OF ISSUE November 17, 2015 PERIOD OF VALIDITY 5 Years

CONTENTS OF THE DECLARATIONS

Product definition and information about building physics Information about basic material and the material’s origin Description of the product’s manufacture Indication of product processing Information about the in-use conditions Life cycle assessment results Testing results and verifications

THE PCR REVIEW WAS CONDUCTED BY: UL Environment PCR Review Panel [email protected]

THIS DECLARATION WAS INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED IN ACCORDANCE WITH ISO 14025 BY UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES ☐ INTERNAL ☒ EXTERNAL

Anna Nicholson, UL Environment

THIS LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT WAS INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED IN ACCORDANCE WITH ISO 14044 AND THE REFERENCE PCR BY:

Jack Geibig, Ecoform USGBC PCR GUIDANCE CONFORMANT (ENHANCED EPD PROGRAM) ☒ YES ☐ NO

SCOPE OF EPD ☐ CRADLE TO GATE ☒ CRADLE TO GATE W/ OPTIONS ☐ CRADLE TO GRAVE

DESCRIPTION OF FUNCTIONAL OR DECLARED UNIT 1 m2 of insulation providing RSI-1 PRODUCT REFERENCE SERVICE LIFE 60 years (based on PCR building reference service life) LCA SOFTWARE USED AND VERSION NUMBER SimaPro 8.0.5 AGE OF PRIMARY DATA USED 1 year (2014 calendar year period) IMPACT ASSESSMENT METHOD(S) AND VERSION NUMBER TRACI 2.1 v1.01; CED v1.09 GENERIC LCI DATASETS USED AND VERSION NUMBER ecoinvnet 3.1 % CONTRIBUTION FROM EACH GENERIC LCI DATASET 100% % PRIMARY AND % SECONDARY DATA USED

©2015 UL LLC. All Rights Reserved

mailto:[email protected]

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According to ISO 14025

Product Definition and Information

Product Description

EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct is a l ightweight, flexible, resil ient thermal and acoustical insulation made of inorga nic glass

fibers bonded with a thermosetting resin. It has excellent recovery and will stand up to handling and fabrication without pulling

apart.

EcoTouch® insulation is the only fiberglass insulation product l isted in the USDA BioPreferred® Catalog. It is verified

formaldehyde-free, easy to handle and consistently meets UL181 test requirements. The product is made in the USA, has a

minimum 53% recycled content and is GREENGUARD Gold Certified.

Manufacturing Locations

This Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) represents the production of EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct manufactured

at the Owens Corning Waxahachie, TX facil ity located at 3700 N Interstate 35 East Service Rd, Waxahachie, TX 75165.

Application and Uses

EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct is the insulation material designed specifically for use by manufacturers of flexible air

ducts. Its resil iency allows it to be shaped around small diameter cores smoothly and without buckling. This document only

pertains to the insulation component of the flexible air duct. Owens Corning only provides the thermal component of the flexi ble

duct, for full flexible duct performance please refer to the flexible duct manufacturer l iterature.

Installation

EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct is intended to be wrapped around

an inner core and held in place by an external jacketing material. The

thermal performance is achieved at all air velocities with both an interior

and exterior air barrier fi lm. This fi lm also acts to keep the insulation out

of the air stream, reducing the possibility of air friction loss. For

installation instructions, please consult the manufacturer of the flexible

duct.

For additional ASTM product specification and other physical and technical information please refer to

http://commercial.owenscorning.com/products/hvac/

http://commercial.owenscorning.com/products/hvac/

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Production

Material Content

EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct consists of two major components, the glass fiber and the binder system. The glass fib er is

made from various inorganic materials, which are referred to as batch chemicals. The binder system consists of organi c

materials.

Table 1: Raw Material Composition of EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct (1 m

2, RSI-1)

Material Function Quantity (mass%)

Non

-ren

ewab

le

Ren

ewab

le

Rec

ycle

M

ater

ial

Origin

Cul let Glass Batch 25-75% North America

Sand Glass Batch 5-50% North America Si l icates Glass Batch <10% North America Borates Glass Batch 10-30% Global

Soda ash Glass Batch <15% North America Oxides Glass Batch <1% North America

Carboxyl ic Acid Binder <5% North America

Polyol Binder <5% North America

Additives Binder <5% North America

Manufacturing Process

Figure 1: Owens Corning Manufacturing Process Flow Diagram for EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct

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Life Cycle Assessment - Product System and Modeling

Functional Unit

The function of EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct is to provide thermal and acoustic insulation for flexible duct

air handling products. The applicable PCR for this product dictates that the functional unit of insulation is: One square

meter (m2) of insulation material with a thickness that gives an average thermal resistance RSI = 1 m2K/W and with a

building service life of 60 years. The functional unit is formed by 1 m2 of fiberglass insulation. No facing materials are

used for the manufacture of EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct.

Life Cycle Stages Assessed

The underlying LCA, which provides the basis for this EPD, has been prepared following the requirements out lined in the applicable PCR. The LCA evaluates the fiberglass insulation by modeling the product life cycle considering the five stages mandated by the applicable PCR:

Raw Materials Acquisition

Manufacturing

Distribution transportation to duct manufacturer End-of-life (e.g., disposal, reuse, or recycle)

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System Boundaries

Assumptions

Assumptions are normal and necessary in conducting l ife cycle assessment. For the underlying cradle-to-grave LCA, assumptions

have been made for both the installation and maintenance phase as well as the end-of-life phase. Assumptions regarding these

phases can be found in the respective sections below.

Raw Materials Production

Transport of Raw Materials (inbound)

Transport to Duct Manufacturer

(input)

End of Life Disposal (Insulation Material Only)

Deconstruction

Manufacturing of Insulation

(input)

Transport of Manufacturing Waste

(Input)

Disposal of Manufacturing Waste

(input)

Figure 2: System Boundaries for EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct

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Cut Off Criteria

The cut-off criteria for including or excluding materials, energy, and emissions data from the study are l isted below, as per the applicable PCR.

Mass – If a flow is less than 1% of the cumulative input mass of the model it may be excluded, providing its

environmental relevance is not a concern

Energy – If a flow is less than 1% of the cumulative renewable and non-renewable energy of the model it may be excluded, providing its environmental relevance is not a concern

Environmental relevance – If a flow meets the above criteria for exclusion, yet is thought to potentially have a significant environmental impact, it will be included. Material flows which leave the system (emissions) and whose environmental impact is greater than 2% of the whole impact of an impact category that has been considered in the assessment must be covered. This judgment was made based on experience and documented as necessary

The sum of the excluded material flows must not exceed 5% of mass, energy, or environmental relevance. The application of these criteria in the different l ife cycle steps is documented in the following sections.

Infrastructure and capital goods: Inputs and outputs associated with infrastructure (construction, maintenance and

demolition of buildings/plants, road surfaces, transport equipment etc.) are not included. This is based on experience from previous LCAs, where the contribution from thes e items is negligible due to the long life time of the equipment compared to that from the high production volume of the material during that l ifetime;

Packaging: Packaging in the form of pallets were included in the analysis as a part of the overhead calc ulation. The

weight of the packaging materials is non-significant compared to the weight of the final product. As such, it has been excluded to reduce data collection efforts;

Workforce burdens: Similarly, workforce impacts, such as travel to and from work, washing facil ities, accommodation,

canteen etc. when considered per processed ton of product, are considered likely to be insignificant and have been excluded; and

Installation and maintenance: The inventory flows associated with the materials used to install the flexible duct are below the cut off rules and have been excluded. This study did not account for the installation of the entire flexible duct,

only the installation of the insulation itself. When properly installed, the insulation requires minima l maintenance during its service l ife.

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Transportation

The transportation stage has been modeled by splitting inbound transportation and outbound transportation (or distribution).

Inbound transportation includes the transportation of all raw materials, including the batch, binder and packaging materials from

suppliers to the Waxahachie manufacturing facility. The outbound transportation or distribution includes the transportation o f

the final product to customers.

Period under Consideration

For the Waxahachie, TX manufacturing facil ity considered in the LCA, Owens Corning primary data was collected for the 2014

calendar year.

Data Quality

To determine how representative the data used to model the life-cycle of EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct manufactured

in 2014 is, the temporal, geographical and technological aspects of the data were assessed. For Owens Corning’s Waxahachie, TX

facil ity analyzed in the underlying LCA study, the data used adequately represents the technology used in 2014 in the United

States. The secondary data used from SimaPro LCI databases was the most appropriate and current data available. When

production data was not available for a specific material in use, available LCI data on similar materials were analyzed to

determine the best surrogate.

Allocation

Owens Corning’s Waxahachie facility manufactures multiple products. Primary data of materials and util ities consumption was

provided on the facil ity level instead of the product level, and therefore allocation was required. Machine operating hours (MOH)

were used to allocate the util ity consumption and other manufacturing impacts (such as air emissions) to each individual

product.

Installation and Maintenance

EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct products are installed with the flexible duct. For the use phase, the insulation in the

flexible duct product when properly installed is a passive device that requires no external resource but does save energy usa ge

for a mechanical system. With proper installation, neither EcoTouch® Insulation for Flexible Duct nor the flexible duct requires

maintenance during its service l ife. This EPD pertains only to the insulation.

End-of-Life

It is assumed that no recycling occurs at end-of-life and that all construction waste is sent to landfill. The average distance from

the demolition site to the construction material landfill is assumed to be 100 miles by use of an industrial garbage truck.

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Life Cycle Impact Assessment – Results

PRODUCT STAGE

CONSTRUCTION

PROCESS

STAGE

USE STAGE

END OF LIFE STAGE

BENEFITS AND LOADS (BEYOND THE

SYSTEM BOUNDARY)

Raw

mate

rial

supply

T

ransport

M

anufa

ctu

ring

Tra

nsport

from

the

gate

to the s

ite

A

ssem

bly

U

se

M

ain

tenance

R

epair

Repla

cem

ent1

)

Refu

rbis

hm

ent1

)

Opera

tional e

nerg

y

use

Opera

tional w

ate

r

use

De-c

onstr

uctio

n

dem

olit

ion

T

ransport

W

aste

pro

cessin

g

D

isposal

Reuse-

Recovery

-

Recyclin

g-

pote

ntia

l

A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 C1 C2 C3 C4 D

X X X X MND X1 X

1 X

1 X

1 X

1 X

1 X

1 MND X MND X

2 MND

Parameter Unit A1 - A3 A4 A5 B2 C2 C3 C4 D

Global w arming potential kg CO2 eq 9.42E-01 9.98E-02 — 0 8.51E-03 — — —

Ozone depletion potential (stratospheric) kg CFC-11 eq 1.31E-07 2.47E-08 — 0 2.11E-09 — — —

Acidif ication potential (land and w ater) kg SO2 eq 4.56E-03 8.30E-04 — 0 5.27E-05 — — —

Eutrophication potential kg N eq 2.21E-03 8.27E-05 — 0 6.00E-06 — — —

Photochemical oxidant creation potential kg O3 eq 3.79E-02 2.53E-02 — 0 1.53E-03 — — —

Abiotic resource depletion of non-renewable (fossil) energy resources3

MJ 1.42E+01 1.53E+00 — 0 1.31E-01 — — —


Renew able primary energy as energy carrier MJ 1.09E+00 3.10E-03 — 0 2.91E-04 — — —

Renew able primary energy resources as material utilization MJ 0 0 — 0 0 — — —

Total use of renew able primary energy resources MJ 1.09E+00 3.10E-03 — 0 2.91E-04 — — —

Non-renew able primary energy as energy carrier MJ 2.05E-02 1.78E-06 — 0 1.54E-07 — — —

Non-renew able primary energy as material utilization MJ 1.55E+01 1.54E+01 — 0 1.31E-01 — — —

Total use of non-renewable primary energy resources MJ 1.55E+01 1.54E+01 — 0 1.31E-01 — — —

Use of secondary material kg 0 0 — 0 0 — — —

Use of renew able secondary fuels MJ 0 0 — 0 0 — — —

Use of non-renewable secondary fuels MJ 0 0 — 0 0 — — —

Use of net fresh water m³ 4.90E-05 2.55E-05 — 0 2.17E-06 — — —

1 See section on use stage benefits. The reference flows for the use phase were included in the analysis ; however, there are no life cycles outcomes associated with the flows. 2 Impacts associated with waste-to-landfill disposal have not been captured by the TRACI impact assessment method and are therefore not shown. Prior LCA

studies have indicated that the impact associated with waste-to-landfill disposal is not significant with respect to those incurred over the cradle-to-gate life cycle. 3 CED v1.09 Method

Table 4: LCIA RESULTS - RESOURCE USE (CED v1.09 METHOD)

Table 3: LCIA RESULTS – ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT (TRACI 2.1 METHOD)

Table 2: DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM BOUNDARY (X = INCLUDED IN LCA; MND = MODULE NOT DECLARED)

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Hazardous w aste disposed kg 5.02E-06 0 — 0 0 — — — Non-hazardous w aste disposed kg 5.37E-02 0 — 0 3.78E-01 — — —

Radioactive w aste disposed kg — — — — — — — —

Components for re-use kg — — — — — — — —

Materials for recycling kg — — — — — — — —

Materials for energy recovery kg — — — — — — — —

Exported electrical energy MJ — — — — — — — —

Use of Material and Energy Resources

Energy resources Unit Flexible Duct Media (1m 2 , RSI-1)

Non-renewable resources

Fossil oil MJ 2.56E+00

Natural gas MJ 9.43E+00

Coal MJ 3.86E+00

Fossil, other MJ 5.51E-02

Nuclear (uranium) MJ 1.28E+00

Biomass (NR) MJ 2.05E-02

Non-renewable resources total MJ 1.72E+01

Renewable resources

Biomass (R) MJ 8.30E-01

Water MJ 9.10E-02

Wind MJ 1.55E-01

Solar MJ 1.59E-05

Geothermal MJ 1.41E-02

Renewable resources total MJ 1.09E+00

Total MJ 1.83E+01

Table 5: RESULTS OF THE LCI – OUTPUT FLOWS AND WASTE CATEGORIES

Table 6: Primary Energy Demand by Resource (Type and Source) for Flexible Duct Media (1 m2, RSI-1)

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Table 7: Life Cycle Impact Assessment Results for Flexible Duct Media (1m2, RSI-1)

Impact category Total Inbound

transportation (A2)

Raw

Materials - Batch

(A1)

Raw

Materials - Binder

(A1)

Manufacturing (A3)

Distribution (A4)

Installation

and Maintenance

(B2)

End-of-life (C2)

Primary Energy Demand (MJ)

1.83E+01 1.86E-01 1.94E+00 1.71E+00 1.28E+01 1.54E+00 0.00E+00 1.32E-01

Global Warming

Potential (kg CO2 eq) 1.05E+00 1.21E-02 1.24E-01 7.52E-02 7.31E-01 9.98E-02 0.00E+00 8.51E-03

Acidif ication Potential (kg SO2 eq)

5.45E-03 9.92E-05 7.97E-04 4.31E-04 3.24E-03 8.30E-04 0.00E+00 5.27E-05

Eutrophication Potential (kg N eq)

2.30E-03 9.93E-06 2.65E-04 5.20E-04 1.42E-03 8.27E-05 0.00E+00 6.00E-06

Smog Creation Potential (kg O3 eq)

6.48E-02 3.02E-03 8.88E-03 4.46E-03 2.16E-02 2.53E-02 0.00E+00 1.53E-03

Ozone Layer Depletion Potential (kg CFC-11 eq)

1.58E-07 2.99E-09 1.20E-08 1.22E-08 1.04E-07 2.47E-08 0.00E+00 2.11E-09

14.9%

54.8%

22.4%

0.3%

7.4% 0.1%

Fossil oil Natural gas CoalFossil, other Nuclear (uranium) Biomass (NR)

76%

9%

14% 0% 1%

Biomass (R) Water Wind Solar Geothermal

Figure 4: Primary Energy Demand from Renewable Resources

for Flexible Duct Media (1 m 2, RSI-1)

Figure 3: Primary Energy Demand from Non-renewable Resources for Flexible Duct Media (1 m 2, RSI-1)

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Figure 5: Primary Energy Demand by Life-cycle Module for Flexible Duct Media (1 m2, RSI-1)

Use Stage Benefits, Scaling to Various Insulation Thicknesses

Table 8: Impact Category Values for 1 m2 of EcoTouch

® Insulation for Flexible Duct at Various RSI-values

Thickness (Installed)

RSI Global Warming

Potential Acidification

Potential Eutrophication

Potential Smog Creation

Potential Ozone Layer Depletion

Potential

inch m 2K/

W kg CO2 eq kg SO2 eq kg N eq kg O3 eq kg CFC-11 eq

1.125 0.74 7.34E-01 3.81E-03 1.61E-03 4.53E-02 1.10E-07

1.610 1 1.05E+00 5.45E-03 2.30E-03 6.48E-02 1.58E-07

1.750 1.06 1.14E+00 5.92E-03 2.50E-03 7.04E-02 1.72E-07

2.250 1.41 1.47E+00 7.61E-03 3.21E-03 9.05E-02 2.21E-07

1% 11%

9%

70%

8% 0% 1%

Inbound transportation (A2)

Raw Materials - Batch (A1)

Raw Materials - Binder (A1)

Manufacturing (A3)

Distribution (A4)

Installation and Maintenance (B2)

End-of-life (C2)

Pub. No. 10020524-A. The color PINK is a registered trademark of Owens Corning.

©2015 Owens Corning. All Rights Reserved.

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Optional Environmental Information

Indoor Environment

Certifications and Sustainable Features of EcoTouch Insulation® for Flexible Duct

Certified to meet indoor air quality standards under the GREENGUARD Certification Program and the GREENGUARD Gold Certification.

Additional Environmental Benefits

Certifications and Sustainable Features of EcoTouch Insulation® for Flexible Duct

Certified by SCS Global Services to contain a minimum of 53% recycled glass content, 31% pre-consumer and 22% post-consumer.

Standards, Code Compliance

Complies with the property requirements of ASTM C553, Type I

References

Product Category Rules for Preparing an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for Product Group:

Building Envelope Thermal Insulation, Version 1.3, 1 June 2014

ISO 14025:2006(E), Environmental labels and declarations – Type III environmental declarations – Principles and procedures

ISO 14040:2006(E), Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Principles and framework

ISO 14044:2006(E), Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Requirements and guidelines Sample production codes associated with this product are: 624349, 624356, and 624353. Please be advised

that these codes are subject to change at any time. Please contact Owens Corning Sales for current production codes, if needed.

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