Creative Composites Group Achieves Environmental Product Declaration for StormStrong® Utility Poles
ALUM BANK, Pennsylvania – Creative Composites Group (CCG), the leading domestic manufacturer of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites, has announced that its StormStrong® utility pole offering has achieved a cradle-to-gate Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) from BRE Global, a third-party, international system that compares and verifies information about the lifecycle environmental impact of products and services.
Parameters of the EPD include primary energy use as well as resource use, including materials, fuels and water. StormStrong composite utility poles are lightweight, designed for grid hardening and are engineered for the current and future sustainability requirements of the utility industry, containing no chemicals or additives that can harm humans or the environment.
“We are very proud of this achievement, which signals our ongoing commitment to being environmentally responsible, validated by a peer-reviewed process,” said Dustin Troutman, corporate director of product development, Creative Composites Group. “With a cradle-to-gate EPD, which considers manufacturing processes, materials and energy. The EPD will permit interested parties to compare the global warming potential (GWP) of our StormStrong poles against steel and concrete poles. In addition, it will serve as a baseline for future initiatives to further reduce the GWP.
As many hazardous chemicals needed to preserve wood utility poles are being banned, composites offer a solution that does not leach chemicals and that extends the sustainability of the product. Additionally, pole-quality wood shortages continue to be a factor and prohibit the ability to build out the grid. And, with steel poles, the associated weight contributes to added transportation needs, in turn adding to emissions.
“Through the work required to achieve this EPD, we found that our product reduces the global warming potential by 30 to 40% over galvanized steel poles,” said Kelsy Valko, chemical engineer, Creative Composites Group. “With our primary environmental impact really being related to the manufacturing process, we feel these findings truly support the claim that we’re making a positive environmental impact with a lighter weight, non-chemical leaching solution.”
More information on Creative Composites Group’s StormStrong product offering can be found here.
ABOUT CREATIVE COMPOSITES GROUP
The Creative Composites Group supplies innovative fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite products for major infrastructure markets. CCG has the design-build and structural fabrication expertise to provide engineered FRP systems and OEM solutions. The Group’s combined team of engineers and technicians have been developing lightweight, durable, cost-effective FRP products for structurally demanding applications and corrosive environments for more than 50 years. Many of these products have paved the way for first-time use of engineered FRP composites for demanding infrastructure markets including: utility, rail, bridges and waterfront applications because of FRP’s high-performance attributes.