CAP Arreghini has always dedicated great attention to the research and development of products that respect the environment and meet the requirements of eco-sustainable building programmes. Its corporate vision aims at the continuous improvement and optimisation of its products with an eye to environmental sustainability that allows it to direct market choices by investing in systems with lower resource consumption, controlling and mitigating direct and indirect environmental impacts according to the Integrated Policy principles.
CAP Arreghini has launched a process of life cycle assessment (LCA) of its paint products with the aim of defining their environmental impact. The analysis, which examined a selection of indoor and outdoor products, was performed in accordance with UNI EN ISO standards and resulted in the achievement of the EPD® Environmental Product Declaration certification.
This declaration is part of “type III labelling” and it provides accurate traceable information on the environmental performance of a product, quantified based on life cycle impact assessments. The objective is to produce reliable information, expressed on a standard basis, which allows a comparison of environmental performance between products that serve the same function.
In this perspective of product sustainability, Type III Environmental Declarations are developed in accordance with the requirements and prescriptions outlined in the voluntary UNI EN ISO 14025:2010 standard and, to ensure that LCA studies are conducted consistently for all products within the same category, precise rules and methodologies are required. These regulations are outlined by PCRs – Product Category Rules – which formulate specifications regarding the conduct of a life cycle analysis for a specific product category, ensuring that the results are consistent and comparable.
The EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) is made on a voluntary basis and it requires preliminary analysis. The LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), is a tool used to evaluate the environmental impact of a product throughout its entire life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing, transport, and final disposal.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) enables the mapping, understanding, and reduction of potential environmental risks resulting from product manufacturing activities and the operations of organisations and services. The relevance of this method consists in the analysis of the stages of a production process, an organisation, or a service, as they are interrelated and connected, becoming a fundamental conceptual framework for development and improvement in function of the target markets.
At the European level, the EPD® certification is considered the most effective, because it simplifies the communication of certified environmental information concerning the sustainability of products. Choosing to obtain the EPD® certification and therefore undergoing an in-depth analysis of its production processes, represents for CAP Arreghini the guarantee of its corporate responsibility towards the future of the Planet.
he development of new product formulation technologies, their constant updating and innovation, and the attention paid to the selection of suppliers and raw materials are the primary objectives of CAP Arreghini’s Research and Development Department, where a team of qualified technicians is working every day in the search for innovative solutions, using an accurate control system to monitor every phase of production.
Following the approval of the LCA study by the DNV certification body, three EPD® declarations were issued and published on the EPD® system portal https://portal.environdec.com/ relating to a selection of exterior and interior paints and coatings, with the objective of providing comparative data and information for public dissemination.
The analysis of the process identified the macro-consumptions involved in the production of the products on which the calculation model in the document of each EPD® was set up and analysed. Following the requirements of the reference documents and with PCR 2019:14, v 1.11 Construction Products, the approach used for this study is called “cradle-to-gate” by which the environmental information provided has been subdivided into information modules.
The purpose of defining system boundaries is to identify a geographical, time, and operational area within which reliable data can be collected which reflects the true environmental performance of the system and provides a complete description of it.
The objective of the performed analysis is to calculate the eco-profile that can be attributed to the processing phase of each individual product. The modules taken into consideration are A1-A3 (production phase) and C1-C4 (end-of-life phase). In accordance with the UNI EN 15804 reference standard and the PCR procedure that was followed, the information used in the study was grouped according to environmental performance indicators, to which the results of the environmental performance are referred.
The analysis activities refer to work cycles, with regard to the products considered, performed at the CAP ARREGHINI S.p.A. plant in Viale Pordenone, 80, 30026 Portogruaro VE.
These EPDs® have been approved by an independent auditor for validation in accordance with the reference standard published by the International EPD® System (General Programme Instructions for the International EPD® System) and PCR 2019:14 Version 1.0 Construction Products.
CAP Arreghini’s EPDs®, being Type III environmental declarations, are in line with CAM requirements, in compliance with UNI EN 15804 and ISO 14025, and provide all stakeholders in the building process with guidelines to reduce environmental impacts, from design to construction, facilitating monitoring activities and making it easier for potential bidders, as the environmental characteristics required by the contracting authority are immediately made evident.