Interpave - 1t Of Precast Concrete Paving Products

The product covered in this EPD is a generic tonne of precast concrete paving products. The products covered are blocks, slabs, channels and kerbs. Concrete paving products are made of cement, aggregates, water and (if needed) admixtures. There are two main manufacturing processes for the paving block, paving flag and kerbs, dependent upon strength requirements. Paving flags can be produced by either casting into flexible silicon rubber or similar moulds or hydraulically pressed into a mould box. Paving blocks and other pressed products tend to be much dryer mixes and are predominantly produced from a blended dry mix. Once demoulded products are loaded into a curing chamber for accelerated curing or moved into the stockyard.

This is an association declaration which uses average data from member companies of Interpave. It is based on data covering a period of 12 months (From January to December 2014). All data was collected from UK factories.

The type of EPD is Cradle to Gate with all options declared – This equates to a cradle to grave EPD without the inclusion of module D. The modules considered in the Life Cycle Assessment are modules A1-C4 inclusive.

Interpretation:

Interrogation of the LCA results show that the cradle-to-grave GWP (Global Warming Potential) impact of 1 tonne of paving products is 136.9 kgCO₂e (Modules A1-C4).

For GWP, A1-A3 accounts for 96% of the lifecycle impact with carbonation in the use phase and post-demolition, reducing the overall impact of paving products. Carbonation in the use phase alone reduces the GWP impact by 3%.

The LCA results show that the cradle-to grave-primary energy demand of the declared unit is 1239 MJ (Modules A1-C4). For primary energy demand, A1-A3 accounts for 82% of the lifecycle impact. The cradle to grave Net use of fresh water (FW) is 0.23m³ (Modules A1-C4) with the product stage (A1-A3) accounting for 87% of this.

Read more about this EPD document