me too, Sara.
Thanks again for sharing all the excellent links and resources!
Hey Scott and @SBayer,
I can’t say too much as of now, but a low embodied carbon continuous insulation product is under development. Stay tuned to Hempitecture for new product announcements 
.
Thanks to you both for taking a hard look at the embodied carbon of products used in the built environment.
Cheers,
Tommy
Good idea. I will ask CLF staff to see whether we have bandwidth to do that.
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From a PCR perspective, there is a lot going on to improve the quality of PCRs. Even though PCRs are typically created by the industries that use them, they are always open for comment through the program operators before being finalized.
Below, you can find the latest initiative from the ACLCA PCR Committee to update the PCR Guidance to improve the quality of PCRs and try to standardize the process.
ACLCA is requesting your feedback on the 2022 ACLCA PCR Guidance –Process and Methods Toolkit . The comment period will run from February 18- March 18, 2022. Please provide your comments here .
With the increasing demand for using ISO Type III environmental product declarations (EPDs) to communicate the potential environmental impacts of products and processes, EPDs are also being used to inform design and procurement decisions. This presents the critical need to create EPDs that are ISO standards-conformant, consistent with life cycle assessment (LCA) best practices and the data delivered digitally for use in the growing categories of cloud construction, accounting, and reporting tools.
To that end, there is an urgency to create technical frameworks that support industry wide protocols for developing high quality product category rules (PCRs). Assuring the quality of PCRs will ensure that EPD results can reliably inform decision-making.
As such, building upon the 2013 American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) PCR Guidance Development document, which has been the leading reference for program operators PCR development process, ACLCA’s PCR Committee has developed the 2022 ACLCA PCR Guidance –Process and Methods Toolkit for PCR development which incorporates the use of EPDs, updates in standards, and program operators experience over the past 9 years.
2022 ACLCA PCR Guidance Process & Methods Toolkit
For creating standardized, consistent, and reliable PCRs and EPDs for the digital economy
Comment Period - February 18- March 18, 2022
The document can be found here .
Please provide your comments here.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Terry Swack or Amlan Mukherjee.
Scott - Thank you for initiating a great thread. In CA rigid foam is prescriptively required on low-rise residential buildings unless you complete your thermal analysis on a performance basis. Also, while T-stud makes sense to lessen the thermal bridge, you can go even further by using BamCore’s Prime Wall which can eliminate over 90% of the thermal (and acoustical) bridging while also eliminating gypsum and OSB. Hal Hinkle
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Recently, I came across similar wood fiber product: Pavatex. This one is from Switzerland, so similar issues are valid here as for the mentioned Gutex and Steico products
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It would really be great to have site specific EPDs!
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@cheryl.smith Thank you so much Cheryl, I am just seeing this! Really good to see PCR’s also developing - and hopefully getting more unbiased eyes on them before they are adopted?!
Any information on when the Electric Product Declaration (EPD) will be updated to incorporate data from the electric melter in Grand Forks?
In summary, Product Category Rules (PCR) and, consequently, EPDs seem susceptible to manipulation with insufficient accountability. It’s disconcerting! I suppose I shouldn’t be taken aback.
How can we effectively draw attention to these issues and concerns? I suggest CLF (@mlewis) consider conducting an educational series on this matter.
If anything, this exacerbates my frustration with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). I was aware of challenges, particularly regarding methodology and boundaries, but this is icing on the cake for me right now.