The Knauf Insulation Eco-Design Tool and Carbon Calculator will enable our teams and customers to have a better understanding of the environmental impact of different solutions, and through a simplified interpretation of Environmental Product Declarations, support the selection of the best one.
Operational carbon is straightforward to calculate using building energy performance data. However, for embodied carbon, or embodied environmental impact in general, we need completely new, innovative measurement tools.
Vincent Briard, our Sustainable Buildings & Partnerships Director, says: “At Knauf Insulation we believe the challenge is so big we need to guide and support the market.
“That is why we launched the Knauf Insulation EcoIndex and Carbon calculator to allow our teams to compare the environmental impact of products and to inform specifiers of the best solution.”
The EcoIndex and Carbon calculator distills a massive amount of data from Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) into one easy-to-understand unique index.
Critically, the tool can also compare entire systems which feature several product components. The EcoIndex and Carbon calculator is a complementary supporting information system which informs Knauf Insulation development teams about the environmental impact of different solutions such as ventilated façades, ETICS (External Thermal Insulation Composite System) or cavity wall insulation.
A number of Knauf Insulation colleagues have now been trained in the EcoIndex and Carbon calculator and are starting to initiate discussions with architects and specifiers. We are testing the benefit of using it on a range of projects throughout 2022.
In addition, Knauf Insulation is assessing how the EcoIndex and Carbon calculator could help to provide a correct interpretation of the environmental impact results of products
that have been assessed based on the two different versions (+A1 & +A2) of the European Union standard EN 15804, which informs product EPDs.
Photo in the header: The Aleja, a modern shopping center in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is highly energy efficient and fire protected thanks to Heraklith® Tektalan A2 037/2, Akustik Roll, and Smart Roof. Photo by Žare Modlic
