Tata Steel Limited has published its first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for Steel Reinforcing bar (Rebar) used in Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) construction, as part of its commitment to be a benchmark in sustainability disclosures and to serve its customers with product specific sustainability information. EPDs are Type III eco-labels that transparently declare the product’s life cycle environmental impact over various indicators. EPD is a requirement in the green building projects for scoring the required credit points as part of the building materials category and it is also seen as a verified document in communicating a product’s life cycle environmental impact for disclosure purposes.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study carried out for developing the EPD for steel products is done as per ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. LCA allows companies to evaluate their product’s environmental performance over its entire life cycle. It typically takes into consideration the full value chain, from material extraction to manufactured product, its usage stage, and end-of-life impacts. The EPD is published in the International EPD System and can be accessed through https://environdec.com/library/epd5018.
Sanjiv Paul, vice president (safety, health and sustainability), said: “At Tata Steel, sustainability embodies our vision for a better tomorrow and forms the ethos of all our endeavours. We are constantly evaluating and evolving our portfolio by imbibing environmental and social perspectives at every stage of the value chain. This EPD initiative is yet another effort to provide transparent environmental disclosures to our discerning customers and enable them to make sustainable choices while also complying with global regulations. We will continue to progress on our journey to lead the sustainability discourse.”
In the coming years, Tata Steel will focus on securing eco-labels (GreenPro and EPD) for its key products and on maximising the coverage of its products across sites under LCA to support the customers with product-related sustainability disclosures. The Company has already received GreenPro certification (Type I eco-label) for many of its construction products.
In FY 2021-22, Tata Steel became the first steel rebar manufacturing company to receive GreenPro certification for its Tata Tiscon TMT rebars. Under this ecolabel certification, all Tata Tiscon rebar manufacturing facilities have been certified for all grades by CII-Green Business Centre (CII-GBC). GreenPro certified products are recognised in the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) rating system as well as by various government institutions (Chennai Metro, Delhi Metro, etc.). In Europe, the Company has produced over 50 Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its construction sector customers – a milestone in environmental impact transparency and reporting.
