The US National Glass Association (NGA) has been selected for a $2.1million grant to help advance the availability and quality of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for architectural glass.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selection of 38 grant recipients across the country, totaling nearly $160 million in funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
“Having our grant application selected by EPA presents a great opportunity for NGA member companies, giving needed resources for our members to provide high quality information to their customers to support sustainable building,” said Nicole Harris, NGA president & CEO.
“This will help NGA advance its goal to elevate the image of glass as a safe, healthy, sustainable and inspiring building product.”
EPA estimates that the construction materials used in buildings and other built infrastructure account for more than 15% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. According to the EPA announcement:
"The U.S. leads the world in the production of clean construction materials, and these transformative awards from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act...will reduce climate pollution by helping businesses measure the carbon emissions associated with extracting, transporting and manufacturing their products."
NGA’s VP of Advocacy and Technical Services, Urmilla Sowell, stated: “The grant will enable NGA to collect regionalized life-cycle inventory data for primary flat glass, develop a tool to generate EPDs to streamline the creation of processed glass EPDs, and provide technical and financial assistance to glass fabricators for processed glass EPDs.
“Additionally, it will gather end-of-life life-cycle assessment data to enhance understanding of glass recycling and its environmental impacts.”
