Sustainability meets innovation
Hawle presents its first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for E3 gate valve.
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for the E3 gate valve
Sustainability is a central issue nowadays, and Hawle is a pioneer in the valve industry when it comes to introducing sustainable products. We are now going one step further and presenting our first Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for the E3 gate valve portfolio. We prepared the EPD together with "Daxner & Merl", a renowned consulting office for sustainability. Validation and publication was carried out by Institut Bauen und Umwelt e. V. (IBU): https://ibu-epd.com/en/published-epds/
What is an EPD?
An EPD is a document in which the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) calculation are presented. This involves calculating the relevant life cycle stages of a product - from raw material extraction to final recycling - as well as the emission factors stipulated by the standard. In addition to factors such as ozone depletion potential and contribution to the acidification of water bodies, the focus is currently on the carbon footprint.
What does that mean in concrete terms?
We performed a simulation to determine the environmental impact of a DN 100 E3 gate valve with flanges. The results show that the production of each E3 gate valve generates 44.5 kg of CO2 up to the factory gate. However, if we used raw material sources shipped from the Far East instead of regional sources with short transport distances, our CO2 emissions increases by about twice.
We believe that every unnecessary kilogram of CO2 is one too many. Therefore, we will be publishing more EPDs for the following products:
- Combi valves & Combiflex
- Service valves
- Hydrants
- Couplings
With our local raw material sources, our sustainable production and by introducing the EPD, we have taken another important step towards sustainability, proving that environmental awareness and innovation do not have to be mutually exclusive.