NGA Publishes Flat Glass EPD

The declaration is valid for five years for clear, low-iron, and tinted glass products that have been manufactured in an unprocessed annealed state. Glass that has been coated, heat-treated, or undergone any secondary processing are not within the scope of this declaration. 

Commissioned by the NGA, the EPD covers flat glass produced by the four member companies of the NGA’s Forming Committee. The member companies that participated in the study are AGC Glass North America, Guardian Industries, NSG Pilkington, and Vitro Architectural Glass.

“NSG fully supports the development of sustainable manufacturing and design,” says Kayla Natividad, architectural technical services engineer, NSG Pilkington. “Contribution to an industry-wide EPD is one of many ways we are pushing the industry toward a greener future.”

“Guardian is pleased to participate in the North America industry-wide EPD for flat glass,” states Chris Dolan, Director, Commercial Segment, North America, Guardian Glass. “The new industry-wide EPD, along with Guardian’s product-specific EPDs, offer architectural design professionals and building owners additional useful options to assess glazing choices and achieve the maximum credits in global green building rating systems, such as LEED.” 



“AGC Glass is deeply committed globally to be at the forefront in developing new products with better environmental performance during their lifetime,” says Jon Hughes, Product Manager, Float and Coatings, AGC Glass North America. “We have developed a holistic approach to fully assess our environmental footprint, an integrated approach embedded in the fabric of our production processes, product innovation and services – we are pleased to support the development on industry-wide EPD.” 

“The development of an industry-wide Environmental Product Declaration is an important development in our industry,” states Paul Bush, Vice President, Quality & Technical Services, Vitro Architectural Glass. “Not only does it reinforce our collective commitment to making glass integral to the future of sustainable building, it also issues a challenge for other industries to do the same. As the first glass company to publish EPDs for all of its flat and coated glass products, Vitro Glass understands and appreciates the attention this data commands in the architectural community.”



The flat glass EPD can be downloaded here. 

EPDs enable the assessment of the environmental impact of products and label them accordingly. EPDs have become firmly established in almost all industries. They contain extensive and independently verified environmental data about a product, from raw material procurement to disposal. NGA employed Sphera (formerly thinkstep), the world's most experienced consulting firm in this field having, to create the flat glass EPD. ASTM International was selected for the validation of this EPD.