Sydney-located SAS International, manufacturer of interior fit-out solutions, has achieved a double first.

The company has announced today it has gained independent verification for its Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), for its entire range of suspended ceiling systems. This follows an announcement last week that it is the first metal ceiling manufacturer to have its products accredited to Green Tag™.

Provision of EPDs is now a requirement for construction products to meet criteria in ratings systems such as Green Star and LEED*. Providing additional transparency on product declarations, independently verified EPDs mean customers benefit from a simpler reference point for specification.

Andrew Jackson, Director at SAS International explains: “Making an informed decision when it comes to responsible sourcing is complex. With independent verification of our EPDs, specifiers can gain a genuine view of how sustainable a metal pan ceiling solution really is. This view is not only based on the clearly-defined rules that the rigour of an ISO brings, but in the knowledge that the EPD produced has also been subject to separate, third-party scrutiny.”

EPDs provide specifiers and clients with an ISO 14025 standardised report of data collected in the life cycle assessment (LCA) as specified by the product category rules (PCR) that are laid down. The EPDs have been certified as meeting the latest ISO 14025 Product Category Rule (PCR) for construction products – BS EN 15804: 2012.

EPDs have become a key consideration when designers and clients need to make a comparison as to the environmental performance of two or more similar products before specifying a solution.

In the past manufacturers would often get EPDs completed in accordance with general raw materials only, or through specialist product associations. This meant individual EPDs on specific ceiling products, over the entirety of their life cycle, were not widely available. This made full environmental impacts much harder to determine clearly, on a case by case basis.

SAS International was the first UK-based manufacturer to achieve 15 individual ISO 14025 EPDs, covering over 145 different grid and acoustic backing options. Taken alongside the recent Green Tag accreditation and minimum 25-year life cycle of steel, specifiers can be assured of the strong sustainability credentials that SAS International’s metal pan ceiling solutions can bring to a project.