Heidelberg Materials North America to receive up to $5 million in funding to develop digital tool declaring a product’s environmental impact
- Heidelberg Materials is selected for award negotiation to receive up to $5 million in funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- The funding will be used to develop a cloud-based tool that can help concrete, cement, aggregates, and asphalt facilities to quickly and efficiently produce high-quality Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)
- The grant is part of EPA’s Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant to foster clean manufacturing in the US
Heidelberg Materials has been selected for award negotiation to receive up to $5 million in funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create a cloud-based tool that can help concrete, cement, aggregates, and asphalt producers to facilitate the creation of high-quality Environmental Product Declarations.
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is a standardised declaration of a product’s lifecycle assessment that shows its environmental impact. In the construction industry, EPDs are central to ensuring transparency on, for example, the carbon footprint of a product. The project aims to introduce a tool that significantly enhances the EPD creation process by implementing full AI-based automation capabilities, reducing the amount of time-consuming manual tasks. Key steps that are set to be automated involve data collection and third-party verification of data sets, among others. This way, the environmental impact can be verified more quickly resulting in an earlier market introduction of new products.
“The acknowledgment by the EPA highlights our innovative spirit when it comes to developing digital solutions that drive sustainability within our industry,” said Dennis Lentz, Chief Digital Officer and Member of the Managing Board of Heidelberg Materials. “I’m proud that the project will contribute to further decarbonising our business, increasing operational efficiency, and ultimately benefit our customers”.
“With this funding, Heidelberg Materials can accelerate the push for more sustainable construction materials and transparency across the industry while also helping our customers make more informed decisions when choosing products with a lower carbon footprint,” said Chris Ward, President & CEO of Heidelberg Materials North America.
The grant is part of EPA’s Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Grant. Heidelberg Materials is among a selection of 38 grant recipients across the US who are awarded a total of nearly $160 million to support efforts to report and reduce climate impact from the manufacturing of construction materials and products.
Driving digitalisation at Heidelberg Materials
Digitalisation is one of the key strategic pillars at Heidelberg Materials. Crossing all business lines and operations, the company’s digital efforts focus on setting up the necessary infrastructure as well as advancing digital products and customer solutions. In doing so, the company is building a leading digital ecosystem to accelerate digital change across the heavy building materials supply chain.
- About Heidelberg Materials
- Heidelberg Materials is one of the world's largest integrated manufacturers of building materials and solutions with leading market positions in cement, aggregates, and ready-mixed concrete. We are represented in more than 50 countries with around 51,000 employees at almost 3,000 locations. At the centre of our actions lies the responsibility for the environment. As the front runner on the path to carbon neutrality and circular economy in the building materials industry, we are working on sustainable building materials and solutions for the future. We enable new opportunities for our customers through digitalisation.
