EPDs help ASP Access Floors to “Walk Carbon Neutral”

18th Mar 2020

ASP Access Floors is a global leader in the access flooring industry, having developed and patented multiple unique access floor designs that have been used in iconic projects around the world.

As well as being a trailblazer in access floor technology and installation, the company is also taking a leadership position in sustainability. To benchmark and support their positioning as champions of sustainability they have recently published EPDs for the Urban Access Floor System and Icon Access Floor System.

We spoke with Angela Zlatar from ASP Access Floors about the company’s environmental commitment and the part EPDs are playing in that commitment.

Please explain ASP Access Floors environmental commitment. 

Since ASP’s conception in 2000, environmental initiatives have always been present in the company’s business plan; seen originally through recycled content and waste initiatives. However, ASP’s environmental commitment has really gained traction and developed over the last 8 years.

In 2012, ASP took focus of our own operational footprint, and committed to the CarbonZero program for 5 years. This program and commitment helped ASP identify a number of key areas to target where reductions were made in carbon emissions, and in turn also delivered in both operational and financial savings.

Over this time our focus expanded to looking more closely at our product environmental footprints. ASP has successfully installed Australia’s first carbon neutral access flooring across all 300,000m2 of the Barangaroo International Towers in Sydney.

This journey led us to producing EPD’s on our 2 major ranges of access flooring products, which aids our clients to achieve higher LEED & Green Star credits on their projects.

We are now launching a new initiative, “Walk Carbon Neutral”, where our clients can opt in their tenders to have Carbon Neutral access floor, where the carbon in their project’s access flooring will be offset.

Also in R&D is an ASP Take Back Program for the access flooring at the end of a building’s life.

How does your investment in EPDs help in achieving this commitment? 

Our EPD investment has created a streamlined process for “Walk Carbon Neutral”. It also has allowed our clients to achieve higher environmental credentials for their projects under both LEED and Green Star.

How is ASP using EPDs to promote their environmental credentials? (i.e. LEED, Green Star, WELL) 

All of ASP’s project tender packages are submitted with our EPD’s included, whether the project is aligning with LEED, Greenstar or WELL. We are happy to see that some head contractors are now requesting EPD’s in the tender packages, and ASP is able to lead the market with our EPD’s and environmental initiatives so far.