CertainTeed Secures Third-Party Verification of Symphony® Mineral Fiber and Fiberglass Ceiling Panels’ Environmental Performance
(Valley Forge, Pa.) – After reviewing all aspects of the products’ environmental performance from manufacturing to end-of-life impact, UL Environment has certified a pair of new Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs®) for CertainTeed’s Symphony® m mineral fiber and VOC Compliant Symphony® f fiberglass ceiling panels.
CertainTeed was the first ceilings manufacturer to issue Environmental Product Declarations through UL Environment and The Green Standard. The new Symphony EPDs join the company’s industry-leading library of more than 21 ceilings product families. To create the EPDs, life cycle assessment data for the Symphony panels was evaluated on critical environmental issues, such as production process impact, usage of raw materials and recycled content, packaging, health aspects and end-of-life impact—providing independent verification of the data in accordance with ISO 14025.
“In today’s schools, office buildings and healthcare facilities, architects and designers are specifying building products that not only fit the desired aesthetic requirements, but also contribute to green certifications and evidence-based outcomes,” said Dawn Chittick, director of marketing for CertainTeed Ceilings. “These EPDs offer a look into the entire life cycle of our Symphony products, so building professionals can be confident of their outstanding performance.”
The baseboard of Symphony m panels is manufactured at CertainTeed’s L’Anse, Mich. facility, which emphasizes industrial ecology and product stewardship. The facility receives renewable electricity from the nearby Warden Electric Biomass power plant, which generates its electricity from waste wood. Excess steam from that plant is also channeled to the ceiling manufacturing facility, reducing its overall natural gas use. As a result, the plant is powered largely through renewable resources and generates almost zero waste.
With a total recycled content of 63 percent, Symphony m consists of a mineral core with a reinforced mat face, providing an NRC of 0.70 and a CAC of 35. The company’s Overtone® finish gives the panels a bright, monolithic finish that provides a high light reflectance of 0.90, which helps enhance daylighting and provides an excellent platform for integration with high-performance, indirect lighting systems. Symphony m panels are also extremely cleanable, exceed Facilities Guidelines Institute (FGI) guidelines for most healthcare applications and are certified for clean room design to ISO Class 4.
VOC Compliant Symphony f panels are comprised of a fiberglass core with 29 to 34 percent post-consumer recycled content that is fabricated at CertainTeed’s facility in Plymouth, Wis. The panels have been third-party tested for emissions and meet the acceptable VOC emission levels for the classroom and private office model environments in the California Department of Public Health Standard Method V1.1. Its Overtone finish gives the panels a luxurious and smooth textured surface with high light reflectance. VOC Compliant Symphony f also offers the outstanding sound absorption necessary for speech privacy in open plan environments.
As experts in the science of sound, CertainTeed Ceilings serves as a single source for high-quality ceilings that create acoustically friendly, aesthetically captivating environments. Encompassing the Performa, Ecophon and Gyptone brands along with Decoustics — a leader in high-precision, custom-engineered solutions — the company offers the perfect balance of innovation, budget and beauty with products that range from basic high-performance panels to premium, customizable systems. Through its emphasis on Environmental Acoustics™, CertainTeed Ceilings provide solutions that promote healthier interiors, while having a smaller impact on the environment, which includes ceiling products with one of the highest concentrations of recycled content in the industry as well as a recycling program for used ceiling panels. For more information, visit www.certainteed.com.
About UL Environment
UL Environment, the independent organization that certified the EPDs, works to advance global sustainability, environmental health, and safety by supporting the growth and development of environmentally preferable products, services, and organizations. In addition to helping design and construction professionals understand the likely environmental performance of a building, EPDs greatly reduce confusion about technical information by providing a standardized format for communication of all impacts of a product or service. EPDs are also useful in providing details required in specification documents as well as product information required in applications for certification in global green building systems.
About CertainTeed
Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pa., has helped shape the building products industry for more than 100 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm's slogan "Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed," quickly inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed® is North America’s leading brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, fence, decking, railing, trim, foundations, pipe, insulation, gypsum, ceilings and access covers.
A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building products company, CertainTeed and its affiliates have more than 6,000 employees and more than 65 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. Recognized as a 2009 and 2010 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CertainTeed earned the 2011 and 2012 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award, the highest level of recognition for outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency. The group had total sales of approximately $3.2 billion in 2011. www.certainteed.com
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