Build Green With Aluminum
Lightweight, strong, durable, corrosion resistant and infinitely recyclable, aluminum builds a more sustainable structure. And with a 70+ year life span for some building products, it's a material that will serve generations to come.
Green Building Resources
The Aluminum Association has several resources to support stakeholders' use of aluminum as a sustainable construction material. Whether you're wanting to know the Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for various types of aluminum or if you're looking for guidance on how to achieve certifications like Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED), the Aluminum Association has you covered.
Environmental Product Declarations
The North American (United States and Canada) aluminum industry is committed to sustainability and making continuous improvements in the environmental efficiency and impacts of aluminum. To meet this goal, the Aluminum Association released third-party validated Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for various types of aluminum products.
Want more information? Read the background report.
Aluminum sheet is the most widely used form of aluminum and found in all of the aluminum industry’s major markets.
Aluminum that is fed through a hydraulic press to make a particular shape. Often used to make building windows, doors, curtain walls, automotive parts, as well as various consumer durable products.
Raw material produced directly from bauxite and used to make casted, rolled or extruded aluminum.
Raw material produced from recycled aluminum and used to make casted, rolled or extruded aluminum.
Green Building Guideline Series
The Aluminum Association developed Aluminum in Green Buildings: A Guide to Green Building Development and Certification with Aluminum Products and Aluminum in Green Buildings: A Guide to Environmental Declarations to assist and support aluminum end-users—architects, designers and engineers—in making informed decisions about aluminum products.
Guide to Green Building Development and Certification
Released in 2015, A Guide to Green Building Development was developed to assist stakeholders in understanding how aluminum contributes to green building development and achieving certifications like Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED). The publication features key information including:
- Aluminum’s unique properties and building applications
- Aluminum building products and systems that contribute to credits for LEED® v4 certification
- North American aluminum’s life cycle environmental performance (Environmental Product Declarations)
- The North American industry’s sustainability strategies, metrics and major achievements
Guide to Environmental Declarations
A Guide to Environmental Declarations, released in 2016, is intended to assist and support aluminum stakeholders in understanding how to appropriately conduct environmental assessments for aluminum building products and develop environmental declarations. Environmental product declaration (EPD) is becoming a significant component of US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) V4 program and is replacing the traditional recycled content method for material credit in the previous LEED versions.
