Canadian precast industry performs LCA, then takes LCA back to the plant with a monitoring tool.

After working with the Athena Institute on an LCA study of precast products and systems, the Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (CPCI) launched its Sustainable Plant Program. “Our LCA has shown us where we, as an industry, can improve in our manufacturing stage of the life cycle. The Sustainable Plant Program will reduce the environmental impact at the manufacturing level while creating a culture of sustainability within the industry,” says Brian Hall, Managing Director at CPCI.

The Athena Institute developed a spreadsheet based tracking tool for CPCI member plants to measure and implement improvements that will have a meaningful impact on their environmental and economic performance. The tool can be used to quickly determine two environmental impact measures – Global Warming Potential and Primary Energy Consumption – and one resource use measure – Water Use – to benchmark individual plants’ precast concrete production, as well as individual impacts specific to a project. The scope of the tool is cradle-to-gate with the “cradle” being the earth and the “gate” being the finished product ready for shipment at the precast plant.

The CPCI Canadian Precast Concrete Sustainable Plant Program is a program designed to encourage continuous improvement and compliance to environmental and sustainability regulations and standards. As part of this program, facilities will be required to submit confidential benchmark reports on a semi-annual basis. The aggregated results of the program will be regularly communicated to the public through the Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Sustainability Report.

For more information see, Life Cycle Assessment: http://www.cpci.ca/?sc=publications