Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
Life cycle analysis is an essential tool for evaluating and determining the path of the environmental improvements that can be made to your products.
An LCA is a rigorous assessment of the potential environmental impacts of a product, service, business or process. It allows for comparison with other products and to assess a product’s environmental impacts throughout its entire life cycle, starting with the extraction of the raw materials necessary for product manufacturing, through its phases of use, maintenance and transport, to its end-of-life processing (landfilling, recycling, etc.). The LCA gives us the information we need to propose eco-design solutions or improvements to a product’s environmental performance.
The LCA is a powerful tool standardized by ISO 14040 to 14044. This method is based on a “compilation and assessment of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of a product system during its life cycle” (ISO.org).
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Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
An environmental product declaration is a report that draws on the LCA, which must be audited by a third party under the supervision of an organization designated as a “Program Operator.” This report is then made public and is valid for up to five years. Thereafter, the manufacturer is responsible for requesting a new audit every five years.
The EPD must meet the environmental requirements of ISO 14025 and ISO 21930 or EN 15804. This document is a standardized report describing the potential environmental impacts of a product based on the life cycle analysis and in accordance with ISO 14025. Examples of environmental indicators include the potential for global warming (greenhouse gas emissions), use of primary resources, and waste generation.
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Health Product Declaration (HPD)
Be transparent and provide your customers with a report on the chemical ingredients in your products and their health effects
VERTIMA – HPDC-APPROVED PREPARER AND VERIFIER BY HPDC (only COMPANY approved in Canada)
The Health Product Declaration® (HPD®) disclosure report has become the benchmark for transparency regarding chemical ingredients contained in construction and maintenance products, as well as other products.
The HPD® provides a complete list of the chemical ingredients found in a product and their health effects, while ensuring that the manufacturer’s industrial secrets are not disclosed.
Manufacturers who produce HPDs for their products make it easier for architects to choose their materials. In addition, HPD-reported products help meet the requirements of LEED v4, WELL, LBC and GOOGLE certifications. To prepare an HPD®, an online tool, called Builder, was developed by HPDC.
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Vertima Environmental Data Sheet (EDS)
The Environmental Data Sheet (EDS) is an exclusive tool developed by Vertima that gathers all the environmental information validated for a product to increase its appeal to sustainable building professionals. The information contained in the EDS follows a third-party certification protocol based on ISO 17065. This rigorous process gives transparency and credibility to your products. The EDS includes the Vertima third-party Validated Eco-Declaration logo.
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Declare Label
VERTIMA – ILFI-APPROVED PREPARER AND VERIFIER (only company approved in Canada)
Declare, the disclosure label for construction products, is a transparency tool created based on the requirements of the ingredients in the “Living Building Challenge” Red List and is used by professionals seeking information on a product’s health impact and source.
The Declare label provides effective channels for communication between manufacturers, architects, designers and consumers.
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Comparative Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) - Optimization
Life cycle analysis (LCA) is an essential tool for measuring and determining how to optimize your products to reduce their environmental impact. Comparative life cycle analyses can be used to help make decisions during the product design or optimization phase.
An LCA is a rigorous assessment of the potential environmental impacts of a product, service, business or process. It allows for comparison with other products and to assess a product’s environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle, starting with the extraction of the raw materials necessary for product manufacturing, through its phases of use, maintenance and transport, to its end-of-life processing (landfilling, recycling, etc.). The LCA gives us the information we need to propose eco-design solutions or improvements to a product’s environmental performance.
The LCA is a powerful tool standardized by ISO 14040 to 14044. This method is based on a “compilation and assessment of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of a product system during its life cycle” (ISO.org).
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Certify Your Product’s Recycled Content
Promote your use of recycled content in your products
As a third party, Vertima can issue a certificate validating the percentage of recycled content in your products. The percentage of recycled content is calculated based on the ISO 14201 and ISO 17065 certification protocol. This third-party certification process gives more credibility to your product’s attributes than a manufacturer’s self-declaration.
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Develop Strategies to Improve your Products’ Environmental Performance
Vertima offers workshops to manufacturers who want to develop strategies to improve their products’ environmental performance. The goal is to identify issues and opportunities to integrate aspects of sustainability into your product optimization process and help you achieve your sustainability goals.
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Evaluate your Product’s Carbon Footprint
Do you make consumer, construction or other products?
Get the Carboneutre certification for your products.
Attain carbon neutrality through an analysis of your product’s life cycle.
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Third-Party External Auditor of LCA and EPD Reports
Vertima’s life cycle analysis experts are also recognized as qualified auditors by the CSA Group and ASTM program operators. We act as a third party when externally auditing your Life Cycle Analysis and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) reports.
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Training and communication
At Vertima, we raise awareness, inform and mobilize different stakeholders through training tailored to your sustainability goals. Communication is essential to integrating and improving your results.
*Trainer accredited by Quebec’s Commission des partenaires du marché du travail [Labour Market Partners Commission].
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