Later this month, the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) will launch its Climate Impact Project. The new initiative will equip manufacturers of fiber-reinforced-polymer composite and cast polymer products with tools, education, and technical resources to provide their customers with important information about the climate impacts associated with the production of their products and raw materials.
“The Climate Impact Project supports ACMA’s Strategic Plan, furthering ACMA’s vision to make composites the sustainable material of choice. Companies in industries like automotive and infrastructure that are major users of composite products increasingly need information about supply chain climate impacts,” stated the President and CEO of ACMA, Cindy L. Squires, Esq. “For example, as they move toward ‘carbon net-zero’ supply chains to meet the climate goals expressed in their Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) reports, B2C companies like automakers will need climate impact information from composites manufacturers and other component suppliers.”
“The Climate Impact Project meets an important need in our industry. Recently, the SEC proposed to require most exchange-traded firms to report the ‘Scope 3’ indirect carbon emissions from a company’s supply chain. As federal policy and state laws change, infrastructure builders like state DOTs are increasingly making decisions about construction materials based, in part, on a comparison of the climate impacts associated with the manufacture of components and materials. Our industry must be ready to respond with clear metrics and solutions,” said ACMA’s Senior Advisor to the President, John Schweitzer.
The Climate Impact Project will start with an updated and expanded ACMA Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), providing estimates of the climate impacts associated with the production of unsaturated polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy and polyurethane resins, and glass and carbon fiber reinforcement, and with the manufacture of composite products using the compression molding, open molding, open mold casting, vacuum infusion and pultrusion processes, and lastly, with secondary bonding. Additional components of the project include: