The Steel Recycling Institute released the first industry-wide Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for Cold-Formed Steel Studs and Track manufactured in the United States and Canada. The EPD quantifies the "cradle-to-gate" life cycle environmental impacts of these products, and can be used by architects and engineers to document these impacts. The EPD, based on a peer-reviewed life cycle assessment (LCA), can also help designers achieve the credits required for building certification within LEED and other green building rating programs.
This is the first industry-wide assessment of the life cycle environmental impacts of these commercial building products in
North America. Roll-formed from galvanized steel sheet into a variety of shapes, cold-formed steel studs and track are being used as the primary structural system for buildings up to nine stories in height and have been used for curtain walls and interior partitions for decades.
While a core component of steel's sustainability is its continuous recyclability, environmental implications of steel reuse, recovery and recycling are reported in a separate module in the EPD to give users the ability to factor in their own end-of-life assumptions.