In order to implement the relevant arrangements of the national “15th Five-Year Plan” on advancing corporate climate and environmental information disclosure, promote the green and low-carbon development of the building materials industry, support the comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation of the economy and society, and facilitate the international mutual recognition of information disclosure rules for building materials products, the China Building Materials Federation convened a meeting on carbon labeling and environmental labeling for the building materials industry in Beijing on April 22, officially launching the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) project for the industry. The meeting aimed to build consensus, clarify direction, establish a sound environmental information disclosure system for building materials products, and jointly promote the upgrade of product environmental information disclosure from “single carbon indicator management” to “comprehensive multi-dimensional environmental performance management.” Sun Xingshou, Vice President and Chief Economist of the Federation and Deputy Director of the Building Materials Industry Carbon and Environmental Labeling Committee, chaired the meeting and delivered remarks.
The meeting noted that the current development model of the building materials industry is accelerating its shift from scale expansion to quality and efficiency. Green and low-carbon development has become an inherent requirement for enterprises to enhance product value and competitiveness. Relevant national policies, as well as the development of green supply chains both domestically and internationally, are placing increasing emphasis on and setting requirements for the disclosure and quantified application of environmental information for building materials products. As a globally recognized tool for quantifying environmental performance across the full life cycle of products, EPD can effectively guide enterprises in their green transformation, expand international development space, facilitate coordinated carbon reduction across upstream and downstream industries, and promote the integration of the building materials industry into the broader global climate action framework.
The meeting emphasized that the EPD project for the building materials industry should be guided by application scenarios such as international trade, public procurement, green buildings, and green finance, and should coordinate the development of data, rules, and disclosure frameworks, promote application acceptance and international mutual recognition, achieve EPDs that are “credible, comparable, and usable,” and facilitate the cross-regional and cross-industry circulation of environmental information elements of building materials products.
The meeting proposed and expressed the hope that building materials enterprises, partner organizations, third-party institutions, and downstream users will actively participate in the project, and jointly build the industry EPD system into a public infrastructure supporting the green and low-carbon development of the industry, providing strong momentum for advancing the green and low-carbon transformation of the building materials sector, enhancing the green competitiveness of enterprises, and promoting coordinated green development across the industrial chain.
At the meeting, representatives from the project secretariat and the operations office introduced the progress of the carbon labeling project, as well as the construction mechanism and work plan of the EPD project. Participants conducted exchanges and discussions on EPD application scenarios and project advancement.
More than 80 participants attended the meeting both online and offline, including representatives from China Cement Association, China Architectural and Industrial Glass Association, China Non-Metallic Minerals Industry Association, China Building Decoration and Renovation Materials Association, BBMG Corporation, Huaxin Building Materials Group, Anhui Conch Group, Guangdong Dongpeng Holdings, New Pearl Group, Shandong Jinjing Science and Technology, and Beijing Guojian Lianxin Certification Center, as well as domestic and international certification bodies.
At present, the industry EPD project has launched platform development and released the “Average Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for the Ready-Mixed Concrete Industry.” It will subsequently initiate the development of Product Category Rules (PCR) technical documents for key building materials products such as architectural glass, architectural ceramics, sanitary ceramics, technical glass, glass fiber, and wood/bamboo products, as well as industry EPD research and enterprise EPD services. More enterprises and institutions are welcome to contact the Federation to jointly follow and participate in the development of the building materials industry EPD system.
Editor: Zhang Hanwen
Reviewer: Shen Yulu, Li Yuemei
