2050 Material facts – What and Why

In the process of democratizing sustainable construction, we provide environmental impact assessment data of the products listed on our platform to our audience/users in a concise and easy to comprehend manner.

The assessed data is presented in the material facts’ section and helps in ease of comparison of different products listed and in understanding the impact of each product while making an informed choice in designing and building towards a sustainable future.

The material facts’ section provides a comprehensive information on a product’s environmental impact basis indicators and metrics including carbon footprint ( GWP), freshwater use (FW), ozone depletion potential (ODP), circularity, and recyclability potential.

Declared or functional unit of the product is the unit used for measurement of the impact of the product. It is the unit per which the assessment results are calculated. Declared or functional unit is expressed in units including kg, m2, m3, or per piece of the product.

The material facts for each component of a product, we take into account primarily the cradle to gate lifecycle stages that include raw material extraction (A1) , transport to the manufacturing location (A2) and manufacturing (A3) stages of environmental impact, waste, and resource use. Transportation, use and end of life stages of all components are also important in understanding the whole life cycle impact of the product.

The material facts’ section also includes the environmental impact of the construction installation stage (A5), use stage (B1-B5) and end-of-life stage (C1, C3, C4) of the product.

Due to lack of accuracy of data, stages A4 ( Transport to site) and C2 (Transport — end-of-life) data are excluded from our calculations and assessment.

The data is sourced from Environmental Product Declaration (EPDs) that are standardized documents and are listed by the manufacturers. The relevant components of the data that we use from the EPDs in our material facts’s section is as given in the table above. It includes the environmental impact, resource use, water use and circularity/recyclability parameters.The data source of the products is mentioned on our platform and is in line with our transparency commitment.

1. Holistic sustainability data available at a glance

Our holistic approach to sustainability implies a comprehensive presentation of data on different indicators and parameters that measure the impact of the product.

2. Aids comparison of different products along with their impact assessment

The available sustainability data helps in the ease of comparison of different products’ performance on basic social and environmental impact indicators. The comparison section also allows us to view the different certifications and datasheets available for the products along with the technical specifications provided by the manufacturer. For some, a price rating is also accessible to compare theoretically exchangeable products within a category.

3. Helps in making informed choices in material selection

Designers, specifiers, and architects can make use of the relevant data in the design process to reduce the impact of a project with the help of the easily accessible and comprehensible data that does not require a deep understanding of sustainability metrics.

4. Promotes transparent manufacturing and construction processes

The sustainability information of the products listed on the platform includes the impact associated with the products’ manufacturing and construction processes. It is aligned with our objective of promoting transparency which is essential towards creating an opportunity for people to make better informed choices.

5. Simplifies selection of sustainable building materials

Easily accessible and comprehensible information on alternative materials can be applied to projects by designers and architects and with their informed choices in material selection, a transition to a sustainable built environment can be facilitated.

For any questions or suggestions to help us improve our approach, reach out to us at info@2050-materials.com

The 2050 Materials team