The latest episode of the AASHTO re:source podcast sits down with the Colorado Department of Transportation to gain insights into how the implements Environmental Product Declaration or EPD requirements for materials used in infrastructure projects statewide.
[Above image by Colorado DOT]
AASHTO re:source – a division of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials – provides services and tools through three major programs: the Laboratory Assessment Program or LAP, the Proficiency Sampling Program or PSP, and the AASHTO Accreditation Program. It launched this podcast series in September 2020.
Craig Wieden, state materials engineer with the Colorado DOT, noted that an EPD is a “transparent and verified report” that presents the environmental impacts of a product. In the case of state DOTs, “the ones that we’re interested in are [for] the construction products we use in our infrastructure projects,” he said.
According to a measure passed by the state legislature, the Colorado DOT must collect EPDs on five construction product categories: cement, concrete, asphalt, asphalt mixtures, and steel, Wieden pointed out.
“There are numerous aspects of the environmental impacts presented in the EPDs that we look at,” he explained. “The one that we’re [most] interested in is global warming potential. Other environmental factors include ozone depletion, acidification, smog, etc. What we’re trying to do with our benchmarking effort is to collect EPDs for the products that are produced specifically in Colorado or provided to our Colorado projects that meet our specifications.”
To hear more from this podcast episode, click here.