SAS International’s chilled ceiling solutions, the company announced today, now have independently verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), offering customers a simpler reference point for specification when it comes to responsible sourcing.

Providing additional transparency on product declarations, independently verified EPDs mean specifiers can gain a genuine view of how sustainable a product solution really is. This view is not only based on the clearly-defined rules that the rigour of an ISO brings, but in the knowledge that the EPD produced has also been subject to separate, third-party scrutiny.

Provision of EPDs is now a fundamental requirement to meet ratings systems such as the RICS SKA* offices and retail criteria in interior fit-out, building rating systems such as BREEAM in the UK, and HQE in France.

Andrew Jackson, SAS International’s marketing director said: “With EPDs based on clearly defined EU-wide regulations, they are an indicator of performance that is reliable and transparent. That the EPD produced has also been independently verified is a further benefit to our customers, and demonstrates how we lead in this market.”

EPDs provide specifiers and clients with an ISO 14025 standardised report of data collected in the life cycle assessment (LCA) as specified by the product category rules (PCR) that are laid down. SAS International’s EPDs have been certified as meeting the latest ISO 14025 Product Category Rule (PCR) for construction products – BS EN 15804: 2012.

EPDs have become a key consideration when designers and clients need to make a comparison as to the environmental performance of two or more similar products before specifying a solution.

In the past manufacturers would often get EPDs completed in accordance with general raw materials only, or through specialist product associations. This meant individual EPDs on specific ceiling products, over the entirety of their life cycle, were not widely available. This made full environmental impacts much harder to determine clearly, on a case by case basis.

SAS International claim to be the first UK manufacturer to achieve 15 individual ISO 14025 EPDs, covering over 145 different grid and acoustic backing options. Now SAS International’s entire range of ceiling systems have independently verified EPDs.