EPD - ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY BLOCKS

KB - BLOK System, s.r.o., was the first company in the building industry to issue an "Environmental Product Declaration" - EPD. The EPD declaration is a new measure of European environmental legislation, to be fully implemented into the EU member states' legal systems in the near future.

KB - BLOK system issues EPD for its major products KB Blocks, Blocks KLASIK, KB ATLAS, Blocks KLASIK XC and KB STROP XC.

By issuing the EPD, KB - BLOK system provides its customers with a convenient set of measurable information on the environmental impact of the product throughout its life cycle. The information includes namely data on energy and water consumption, waste production, impact on climate change, eutrophication and damage to the ozone layer. The information was gathered using the life cycle analysis method (LCA) according to ČSN ISO 14040-49 standards.

Results of the LCA stocktaking analysis

Resources	Phase of the product's life cycle
	Raw materials	production	transport	TOTAL
Material consumption /ke/ ref.i.
Non-renewable	1,045.02	0.50	0.19	1,045.71
Renewable	2.70	0.12	0.03	2.85
Water (treated)	3,670.00	9.94	5.60	3,685.54
Energy consumption /MJ/ref.j.
Nuclear 161.78		27.54 | 1.23 | 190.55
Fuel consumption/MJ/ref.j.
Coal	819.59	91.26	3.63	914.49
Crude oil	577.68	35.2	105.69	718.57
Natural gas	262.88	19.25	5.13	287.26
Renewable	5.91	92.58	0.06	98.55
Other	0.80	0.32	-0.01	1.11
TOTAL	1,822.73	173.57	115.67	2,111.98
Waste /kg ref.j.
Recyclable	-	-	-	-
Other	0.18389	0.02675	0.03346	0.18389
Hazardous	1,045.015	0.50367	0.1911	1,045.721

No recyclable waste was indicated in the table - it is unfeasible to indicate them relevantly in the involved life cycle phases.

Environmental product profile

Waste categories		Phase of the product's life cycle
		Raw materials	production	transport	TOTAL
ref.j.
Global warming	kgCO2 eq	2.34E+02	5.83E+00	9.15E+00	2.49E+02
Damage to the ozone layer	kg CFC-11 eq	0.00E+00	2.00E-08	1.00E-08	3.00E-08
Acidification	mol H+ eq	6.25E-02	3.61E-03	1.48E-03	6.76E-02
Eutrophization	kg PO43- eq	6.40E-02	4.35E-03	1.17-02	8.01 E-02
Eutrophization	kg O2	2.95E+00	2.01E-01	5.42 E-01	3.70E+00
Photooxidant formation	kgC2H4 eq	8.51E-02	5.65E-03	6.17E-03	9.68E-02

Note: The category of eutrophization impact evolved in two versions. The first is according to PCR 2006:02 - Building Products - category indicator g PO₄^3- _eKv a The International EPD Cooperation (IEC) - category indicator, Supporting Annexes for EPD; the second is according to International EPD Cooperation (IEC), Supporting Annexes for EPD - category indicator O₂, maximum.

KB - BLOK system prepared, issued, verified and certified EPD of its own free will in accordance with the international standard ČSN ISO 14025.

The objective of the EPD is to present to the customers in a credible manner the level of the impact of the product on the environment in the individual observed areas (water, energy, waste, global warming etc.) throughout the product's life cycle, which includes:

• mining and processing raw materials
• the product's manufacturing processes
• the transport of product to the building site

Thanks to the EPD, the user is given the opportunity to compare the level of the environmental impact with similar products available in the market. Users who prefer "green products" thus have the chance to make a selection according to clearly defined parameters, and preferring more environmentally-friendly products in their choice.

For KB - BLOK, s.r.o. the issuance of this EPD Declaration means a long-term commitment to aiming all its production and logistic processes towards sustainable consumption and production through improving the production management, introducing innovations, and the conscious targeting of consumption towards environmental friendliness.

The EPD for the product is renewed every 3 years. This means we are to issue a new EPD in 2012 that should, again, be a bit more environmentally-friendly.

KB - BLOK System, s.r.o. has launched several projects targeted at reducing the impacts of the EPD on the environment. In its projects, KB BLOK system focuses on the area of raw material consumption, manufacturing and logistics processes. These are the projects:

• Optimizing concrete formulas for all product lines (targeted optimization of Portland cement consumption while keeping all the qualitative parameters);
• Utilization of renewable energy sources in the factories;
• Reducing the proportion of road haulage in the total volume of transported goods by using rail transport preferentially.

EPD = Environmental Product Declaration

Environmental declaration – quantified environmental information on the impact of a given product on the environment throughout its life cycle.

KB - BLOK systém, s.r.o. has been granted an accredited environmental declaration (EPD) for the product group "Concrete blocks", the first and only accredited EPD in the Czech Republic!

The EPD follows the standard requirements of ČSN ISO EN 14020:2002 Environmental Brands and Declarations – General Principles, and ČSN ISO 14025:2006 Environmental Brands and Declarations – Environmental Declarations Type III – Principles and Procedures.

The EPD is a Type III environmental marking that allows the holder to use the brand on its environmentally certified products.

The EPD is the company's communication to its surroundings that it knows the environmental impacts of its products, and its commitment to a continuous reduction of these impacts.