Quantifying Environmental Impact

Product Category Rules are a set of regulations, requirements, and guidelines that help us to define standards for a material. It also ensures that comparable data and analysis methods influence the development of similar products. Specifically, PCRs outline the requirements that must be followed when developing EPDs, the predominant vehicle for communicating environmental impacts of materials.

An Environmental Product Declaration is a report developed using the PCR for a specific type of product. This independently verified and registered summary quantifies key environmental impacts of a material’s production. Publication of EPDs helps to stimulate and improve the environmental performance of cement and concrete globally.

In North America, ISO standards serve as the basis for PCR and EPD development. ISO develops and publishes standards to ensure quality, safety, and efficiency across various industries globally. Per ISO standards, PCRs are reviewed at least once every five years to ensure that they represent the current state of manufacturing for a product within a given industry.

The PCR for cement offers a “cradle-to-gate” scope, which considers the manufacturing process but does not include how the material affects the environment beyond the production plant. As PCRs evolve and more information is known, it may be possible to include impacts beyond the manufacturing process.

Placing boundaries around the production process helps us to quantify the environmental effects of manufacturing. Some PCRs only include the impacts of making a specific amount of material, which is referred to as a “declared unit.” For products like cement that can be used in a wide variety of applications, declared units, such as one metric tonne of cement, are more appropriate for manufacturer reporting of environmental impacts.

One of the highest interest topics reported on EPDs is the “Global Warming Potential” (GWP), measured in kg of CO2-eq/kg product, which normalizes all greenhouse gases to CO2 equivalents to simplify reporting. This is the approach suggested by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the body responsible for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC Assessment Report (AR), currently in its 6th version, provides a global methodology to ensure consistent reporting across the world.

Compared to the 2020 PCR, new and expanded topics for cement include:

• A wider range of cement types for construction are covered, including non-clinker-based cements
• Better boundary identification for PCRs of other construction products that relate to cements, such as supplementary cementitious materials, ready-mixed concrete, precast and dry cast concrete, and packaged mixtures, to ensure no over- or undercounting of impacts
• A decision tree to determine output flows as waste, secondary or recovered materials, or co- or by-product materials
• Improved description of data sources and data quality, including a hierarchy for electricity from the grid
• How to account for and report embodied impacts when renewable electricity sources are used
• Recognition of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) operations, detailed in an annex
• Example calculations for carbonation and calcination emissions

Lifecycle Quantification

An EPD conveys the environmental significance of the manufacturing process—but it does not quantify long-term impact. As noted above, EPDs are developed using PCRs to provide consistent, transparent information, much like the required nutritional labeling on food packages. To extend that analogy further, just as individual food labels do not describe the complete diet, individual EPDs must be used together to understand cement’s full impact on the construction project. This requires a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of projects comprising the relevant materials and involves environmental factors such as:

• How cement is transported to a site
• Construction processes
• Service life of the built structure and repair or maintenance procedures
• Disposal or recycling of the material after a building’s use phase

Industry Average EPDs

Per governing standards, EPDs are only valid for up to five years but may be updated more frequently. Current industry average EPDs in the U.S. are based on the 2020 Cement PCR (NSF 2020) and were last published in 2021. They cover four categories of cement:

• ASTM C150 portland cement
• ASTM C595 portland-limestone cement
• ASTM C595 blended cements
• ASTM C91 masonry cement

The current PCR and industry-average EPDs for cement are linked below. Note that these EPDs were developed using the GCCA EPD Tool, North American module, which is a web-based calculation tool that complies with the requirements of the North American Cement PCR. Now that a new cement PCR is available, the process of collecting data for analysis and development of new industry average EPDs can begin, with publication expected in 2026.

GCCA EPD Tool

ACA partners with the Global Cement and Concrete Association, GCCA, to support industry-specific software for draft EPD creation for clinker, cement, aggregate, concrete, and precast. The tool assists users with calculating all environmental impacts required to be reported by the relevant PCR.

The GCCA tool has both a North American and International module, as these regions follow different PCRs. The North American module follows ISO 21930, Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works — Core rules for environmental product declarations of construction products and services, and the International module follows EN 15804, Sustainability of construction works – Environmental product declarations – Core rules for the product category of construction products. Although many of the requirements of the two PCRs are harmonized, a few differences warrant maintaining a separate module in the GCCA tool for North America. Updates to the North American module of the GCCA Tool to reflect the cement PCR v4.0 are occurring from October to December 2025, with a verified North American module anticipated in early 2026.

As GCCA notes, EPD developers can use the GCCA tool to simplify production of EPDs, which provide objective, transparent, and comparable information about a product and serve as an environmental label or declaration. For more information about the GCCA EPD Tool, benefits of using it to develop EPDs, and other features, see Simplify cement and concrete EPD Creation | GCCA EPD Tool.

ACA and GCCA member dues support development and maintenance of the tool, so these associations’ members can access the tool free of charge, whereas non-members can gain access via a subscription. For information on registering for or accessing your account, visit: Unlock the Future of Construction | Simplify EPD Creation