How much greenhouse gas emissions are associated with a product along its lifecycle?
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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

is a holistic and scientific tool internationally approved to quantify the potential environmental impacts of a product throughout its life cycle — from raw material and resource extraction to manufacture, use and end of life.
LCAs provide manufacturers with a picture of environmental performance or their products throughout their life cycle. Manufacturers can use LCAs to spot improvement opportunities in order to work bring more sustainable products. 
Check our LCA portfolio brochure

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

is a document based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that summarizes the environmental performance of a product, along its life cycle, from raw material extraction, product to end of life.
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Optimize environmental footprint

With lower energy use and water use, renewable energy and reduced waste generation.

LCA & EPD in practice

EPDs and LCAs are necessary for engineers and architects to perform buildings life cycle assessment. In particular, verified LCA data enables them to assess embodied carbon and identify and reduce the environmental impacts associated with the use of building materials.

Embodied carbon assessment and reduction and the use of 3rd party verified LCA or EPDs are increasingly being pushed by new regulations (France, Denmark, Netherlands, Toronto, etc.). 

The use of EPDs is also strongly encouraged by green building certifications and enable earning credits by maximizing the number of materials that have a verified 3rd party LCA or EPD.

The collection of Interlayers Life Cycle Inventory data is needed to contribute into the laminated glass A1-A3 cradle-to-gate EPD section.

Eastman can provide support to facilitate integration of Saflex and Vanceva Life Cycle Inventory into our customers LCA database with any set of impact indicators (e.g., EN15804+A2)

In this way the whole value chain, from direct customers to architects and façade engineers, rely on more accurate and complete EPDs facilitating whole building Life Cycle Assessments.

Before comparing environmental performance of products, several aspects should be taken into account to ensure comparable basis:

  • Make sure products compared have same functional unit: Saflex and Vanceva interlayers LCAs are using kilogram (not square meters)

  • Ensure the scope of the LCA is comparable: Cradle to gate and Cradle to grave cannot be compared!

  • Some EPDs or LCAs are averaging the whole product portfolio while some others are more accurate down to the product level. Eastman provides an accurate LCA at product level.  

  • Standards: if the products compared do not comply with the same standards, there is a risk that the LCA results should not be comparable.  

  • Ensure that the EPDs to be compared are made under the same Product Category Rule (PCR).

  • Ensuring that LCA or EPD has been 3rd party verified ensures more transparency and credibility to the decision to be made. Eastman always provides 3rd party verified Life Cycle Assessments.

Eastman has set goals for 2050 with interim goals by 2030. 

The Advanced Materials Interlayers group is working through several levers to ensure meeting our corporate goals and those of our customers and markets.

Our Scope 1 and 2 Levers include continuous improvement of energy efficiency, for instance our site in Ghent had successful ISO50001 audits. Through our corporate goals we have also committed to using 100% renewable energy for our North American and European sites by 2030. 

However, we know this is not enough as our raw materials also account for a significant portion of our emissions. We are currently calculating our Scope 3 baseline to define a reduction strategy and set targets. We continue working on programs to move towards more circular practices, advanced recycling technologies to increase the use of renewable feedstocks in our products and setting targets for more sustainable procurement.

Eastman material innovators who care for society

Saflex journey to Life Cycle Assessment

Advanced Materials Interlayer business of Eastman developed in-house LCA expertise from 2018 and continues to invest in capability development. 

LCA Third-party verified

All Saflex and Vanceva LCAs are internally conducted followed by external third-party verification. At Advanced Materials Interlayers, the Life Cycle Assessment results are a metric to both track opportunities for sustainable improvement and reducing our product environmental footprint. 

Learn about our data & methodology
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Which standards and methodologies are used by Eastman to conduct Life Cycle Assessments? 

The LCA Methodology evaluates the global warming potential and other environmental indicators of Saflex and Vanceva products on a cradle to gate scope, meeting ISO14040/ISO14044 guidelines. 

The scope of our LCA is Cradle to Gate including resource extraction, shipment of raw materials, and production.

The functional unit for a Saflex EPD we follow the end application and therefore the functional unit is per square meter. Guidance for conversion to kilogram will be provided:

Conversion to kg: 

  • Declared unit: 1 m² 
  • Weight: 0.813 kg/m²  
  • Density: 1070 kg/m³ 
  • Thickness: 0.00076 m 

Saflex and Vanceva LCAs are primarily calculated using the Sphera LCA for Experts software (formerly known as GaBi).  Eastman has access to many of the most widely used and accepted LCA databases: Sphera Managed LCA Content (MLC) and Ecoinvent. 

Saflex and Vanceva LCA data provides valuable information to our customers, empowering them to make more responsible material selection decisions. 

Eastman was the world’s first interlayer manufacturer to publicly release a 3rd party verified PVB interlayer LCA in April 2022 for its highest volume product Saflex R-series Clear. 

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Certified Life Cycle Assessment

As we believe it is important to deliver a transparent and trustable communication about our product environmental performance towards customers and markets, Advanced Materials Interlayers has been heavily investing in conducting and certifying LCAs for its extended product range.