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ASTM International Develops First Product Category Rules for Asphalt Roofing Industry

WASHINGTON — The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association (ARMA) has partnered with ASTM International to develop Product Category Rules (PCR) for asphalt roofing in North America. The goal of the new PCR will be to provide consistent methodologies for asphalt roofing manufacturers to measure and report the expected environmental impact of their products. This new document can be accessed for free on ASTM International’s website (www.astm.org/certification).

PCRs provide guidelines for the development of environmental product declarations (EPDs) for a specific product group. PCRs are valuable to any industry because they streamline the process through which products are measured and their environmental impacts communicated, creating globally consistent documentation. Asphalt roofing manufacturers can use these guidelines to review their own products and develop an EPD, which is a verified document that reports the expected environmental performance of a product based on its expected life cycle. An EPD uses the data collected through PCR guidelines to provide comparable environmental impact data for similar products.

“This PCR is a significant, universal resource for the asphalt roofing industry,” said ARMA Executive Vice President Reed Hitchcock. “It provides asphalt roofing manufacturers with a way to collect, measure and communicate data pertaining to expected product environmental impacts through an environmental product declaration, and will give consumers and industry professionals new insight into asphalt roofing materials. Developing these guidelines helps further ARMA’s commitment to transparency and environmental sustainability.”

ARMA and several of its member companies participated in the development of this PCR, titled “Asphalt Shingles, Built-Up Asphalt Membrane Roofing, and Modified Bituminous Membrane Roofing.” The guidelines cover asphalt shingles applied over underlayment, and low-slope roofing assemblies consisting of various combinations of factory-produced asphalt-saturated or coated base sheets, ply sheets and cap sheets together with specified viscous asphalt coatings, adhesives and surfacings.

ASTM began its PCR and EPD program in 2012 to provide an infrastructure that can be used for the evaluation and communication of a product’s full-lifecycle environmental impacts. ASTM develops PCRs in partnership with various segments of the building construction industry and in accordance with international standards. ARMA’s partnership with ASTM was an efficient way to provide a PCR to asphalt roofing manufacturers that is standard among researchers, developers, consumers and businesses.

For more information, visit www.asphaltroofing.org.