With a longstanding commitment to circularity and creating the best recycled products for its customers, ResourceCo is walking the talk by developing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its recycled aggregate products.
As one of the leaders in the recovery and re-manufacturing of primary resources, ResourceCo is always looking to find ways to best support its customers.
Its new initiative, developing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), is focused on supporting customers towards quantifying and improving their sustainability performance.
Since the 1990s, ResourceCo has worked with governments, communities and multinational companies to progress the circular economy and preserve natural resources for a sustainable future.
As an industry leader, ResourceCo is a multi-faceted resource recovery company in Australia.
In addition to recycling soils, tyres, as well as commercial and industrial waste, ResourceCo also receives and transforms construction and demolition waste materials, including asphalt, concrete, bricks and rubble, along with glass, into a range of recycled products for construction and infrastructure developments.
ResourceCo recognises the need for its customers to be equipped with the information that can provide evidence of environmental performance. Especially with environmental credentials and emissions reporting emerging as key requirements in federal, state and local government procurement policies and tenders.
The EPDs provide independently verified, quantified data on the environmental results associated with a given product at each stage of its lifecycle.
ResourceCo provided its site-specific data to undergo a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which tracks the processes, inputs, and outputs involved in each step of the development of a product and calculates the environmental impact at each stage.
The LCA practitioner assessed the life cycle impacts of the products before they were taken to an international accredited verifier who signed off the EPDs for the Australasian register.
In March 2023, ResourceCo began its journey to acquire its first set of EPDs for its recycled glass sand products.
Brad Lemmon, ResourceCo’s Chief Executive Officer, Recycling and Waste, says the process took over 12 months to be finalised, but it has been well worth it, given the benefits for customers.
“It can be a lengthy process because the LCA practitioner has to set up the site, model each part of the process and then monitor 12 months of data,” says Lemmon.
“Looking at the recycling and waste pillar of the business, we have EPDs for all facilities within this part of the business complete, besides Hampton Park in Victoria which is under development.”
With the modelling already complete from previous EPDs, Lemmon says the Hampton Park EPDs are on track to be done by mid-2025, completing all ResourceCo construction and demolition waste management handling facilities across the country.
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Customer prioritisation
Although recycled construction materials have been in use for some time, Lemmon says the industry still displays scepticism around how sustainable the materials really are.
“We find customers frequently asking questions about the makeup of the product, how well the product will work, if it will work better or worse than a non-recycled product, and more,” says Lemmon.
“Although our products are certified to be used on Australian projects nationwide, our customers still ask if the products achieve the sustainability benefits we claim.”
Lemmon says the only way to answer these questions is to present independently quantified data displayed in the new EPDs.
“The reality is not all recyclers are the same as us. There are a number of recyclers that can’t validate the sustainability benefits of their products” he says.
“But we can, and that is really what underpinned our desires to get these EPDs done.”
With customers requesting more data on recycled products, Lemmon says the new EPDs have allowed ResourceCo to provide all the necessary information.
“Customers want to be able to validate that the materials they’re using do provide sustainability benefits for their projects,” he says. “One of ResourceCo’s main objectives is to actively listen to our customers about what we can do for them, to benefit their business in the long run.
“Internally these declarations give us a new and effective way of zoning in on areas where we can make further operational improvements and changes to our supply chains. We are constantly looking for ways to improve across all our sites across the business, no matter how big or small.
“We are committed to the ongoing review process for the EPDs to benefit the future of the industry and its sustainability journey.”
Positive feedback
Having EPDs for these products has already proven a success, according to Mitchell Bacon, ResourceCo’s Environmental Development Manager.
“We have started to pick up feedback around the EPDs, which has been measured by organising meetings with customers who have historically been hard to reach,” says Bacon.
“Councils have an increasing focus on understanding and reducing their embodied carbon emissions. As soon as we started highlighting our EPDs, we noticed councils’ desire to talk to us about the things we are doing, solely on having already undergone the process.”
Bacon says the EPDs last for five years unless there is a material change in operations.
Despite the long time frame, Bacon says the business will continue to monitor the frequency at which the EPDs should be reviewed.
“Once the EPD is on the register, we receive a full life cycle assessment report which we can use to assess making changes to business operations,” says Bacon.
“For example, if we were to switch to an alternate source of energy on one of our facilities, we would get the EPD for that facility reassessed, in order to reflect the new change.”
With the EPD process well underway for most aspects of the business, Bacon says ResourceCo is now looking at what else can be done to further accredit other pillars of the company.
“ResourceCo is actively looking at what else we can be doing to support our customers. We’re not stopping here, the EPDs are just one of a range of things we’re working on to support the developing needs of our customers as we grow,” says Bacon.
This article was originally published in the March edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
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