Hello everyone,
When the draft of the LCA section of the ACA Sustainability program was presented to the Joint Committee (JC), it was decided that we should conduct a straw poll to determine the best path forward in handling optimized LCA impacts (specifically carbon footprint/GWP). The options are to either assign some specific thresholds for improvement like LEED does or to allow for full credit to any GWP improvement at program conception and define specific thresholds later.
I will say up from that I am completely indifferent on this as an LCA practitioner, industry member, and SW employee, and see pros and cons to both sides. As such, I will abstain, but wanted to provide some context for folks that were not on the JC call or have participated on all the LCA TG calls.
1. The case for making different optimizations thresholds (any reduction, 5%, 10%, for example) is that we are generally seeking alignment with LEED and they have assigned specific improvement thresholds in their EPD Optimization credit option. As such, credit would be given for a marginal improvement in GWP (1%, for example), but more credit would be given for larger reductions/improvements. Generally, this would reward folks for taking more action, but it also may reward products that started off at a much less efficient place (although to be fair, neither option would resolve this, it may just be potentially a bigger issue here).
2. The case against specific thresholds is that the EPD Optimization option/credit is not actively being used within LEED and the thresholds are arbitrary and likely to change. They also may be way too high or way too low for our industry as they treat every building material the same. To say it another way, there is not enough data to know what is a reasonable GWP improvement for an architectural coating and accepting these thresholds may either create bottlenecks or disproportionate point gains in the program. This being said, treating all improvements the same does not incentivize companies for more aggressive GWP reductions, so that is certainly a concern.
At any rate, please cast your ballot based on what you feel is most appropriate and no matter what is decided, we can always adjust the program in the future.
I hope everyone is doing well!
Doug |
