ASTM Workshop to address PCRs for building products.
Press Release Summary:
Scheduled for Oct 11, 2010, workshop titled Product Category Rules for Building Products: Building the Infrastructure for Environmental Product Declarations will explore activities underway in development of PCRs and EPDs and chart the course ahead. Participants will take a look back at accomplishments over past year and develop work plan of prioritized needs for continued PCR development. Workshop will close with working session targeting specific issues and modeling upcoming work.
Original Press Release:
ASTM International Workshop on Product Category Rules (PCRs) for Building Products
W. CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa., -A workshop on Product Category Rules (PCRs) for Building Products: Building the Infrastructure for Environmental Product Declarations, will be held on Oct. 11, 2010, at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas. The workshop is sponsored by ASTM International Committee E60 on Sustainability, and will be held in conjunction with the Oct. 12-14 standards development meetings of the committee.
The use of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) is increasing worldwide. EPDs disclose the environmental performance of products based on life cycle assessment (LCA). The increased use of EPDs is being driven by both voluntary actions and new requirements. Companies interested in showing their customers that they have strong environmental performance voluntarily use EPDs to make science-based disclosures of their product performance. Internationally, some nations and regions are beginning to require EPDs for products sold within their borders. oth drivers create an urgent demand to build the infrastructure for EPDs.
In this one-day workshop, participants will explore activities already underway in the development of PCRs and EPDs and chart the course ahead. Specifically, in the morning, participants will take a look back at accomplishments over the past year, including efforts to create a national PCR repository and develop training and marketing materials for outreach. Midday, with an understanding of activities currently under way, participants will develop a work plan of prioritized needs for continued PCR development. Finally, the workshop will close with a working session targeting specific issues and modeling upcoming work.
This workshop will benefit manufacturers, trade associations, specifiers, institutional purchasers, life cycle assessment practitioners, government representatives and standard developers.
Online registration opens approximately eight weeks before the workshop and closes Oct. 6. There is no fee to attend the workshop. You may also attend the workshop via webinar for no cost. For more information, visit http://www.astm.org/E60work1010.htm.
Additional technical information is available from workshop chair Melissa Winters, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Seattle, Wash. (phone: 206-553-5180; winters.melissa@epa.gov).
ASTM International is one of the largest international standards development and delivery systems in the world. ASTM International meets the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles for the development of international standards: coherence, consensus, development dimension, effectiveness, impartiality, openness, relevance and transparency. ASTM standards are accepted and used in research and development, product testing, quality systems and commercial transactions.
ASTM Staff Contact: Hannah Sparks, Phone: 610-832-9677; hsparks@astm.org
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