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Angelus Block publishes first externally verified Environmental Product Declaration for concrete masonry products

Words: John SurrattAngelus Block Co., Inc., the largest manufacturer and supplier of concrete masonry unit (CMU) products in Southern California, announced the release of the first Type III Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) under the new Product Category Rules (PCR) for CMU.

The EPD for Angelus Block Concrete Masonry Units represents "our continued commitment to the green building market by providing leading edge, and highly useable tools to inform architectural design decisions," said Edward Antonini, President, Angelus Block. "Concrete masonry is an essential building system, and our goal is to educate stakeholders in the building process about its inherent, and extensive, green attributes. A considerable portion of our website is dedicated to it. The Type III EPD is an important progression in our support of green rating systems in general, and to material transparency in particular."

Architects have the challenge of balancing sustainable goals, client needs, and practical material choices for successful execution in the field. "By evaluating materials with EPDs," said Craig Biggi, Principal Associate, Gruen Associates, Los Angeles, "architects are able to get a more comprehensive understanding of the sustainable merits of a product, and how these material choices affect the environment we live in. Manufacturers such as Angelus Block providing transparent environmental information consolidated in a verified summary is definitely a step in the right direction."

The EPD includes a substantial set of 69 individual mix designs for products from each of their seven CMU manufacturing locations in and beyond the Los Angeles metroplex.

"We provide a considerable cross-section of our product lines," said Antonini. "For the EPD to be as effective as possible, we needed to cover multiple materials, unit sizes and configurations to have our core products fully represented."

Angelus Block's EPD is available for download at www.angelusblock.com/docs/Angelus_Block_CMU_Type_III_EPD.pdf.
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