October 7, 2026 - The American Coal Ash Association has partnered with the American Cement Association, Slag Cement Association and Natural Pozzolan Association to establish a single set of environmental reporting rules for cementitious materials.

The framework combines three separate Product Category Rules covering cement, slag cement and supplementary cementitious materials, including coal ash and natural pozzolans. Bringing these requirements together will improve consistency across materials and support reporting for blended cements that contain supplementary ingredients.

The consolidated rules are published as SMART EPD® Part B Product Category Rules for Cementitious Materials, Standard 1000-017, version 1.

Jamie Farny, the American Cement Association’s director of environmental measurement and metrics, said several supplementary cementitious material producers and their representative organizations had requested the change.

Farny said a common framework would reduce duplicated work and promote consistent application of reporting requirements. It would also help manufacturers and customers evaluate opportunities to reduce concrete’s environmental impacts.

The American Cement Association’s environmental product declaration consultant has begun collecting data from U.S. cement manufacturers under the new rules. That survey will support updated industry-average environmental product declarations, known as EPDs.

National-average declarations will cover four cement categories: portland cement, portland-limestone cement, blended cements and masonry cement. Applicable standards include ASTM C150/AASHTO M 85 for portland cement, ASTM C595/AASHTO M 240 for portland-limestone and other blended cements, and ASTM C91 for masonry cement.

Regional declarations for those categories will also be prepared where the available data allow.

Cement EPDs help construction owners, designers, specifiers and concrete manufacturers assess environmental performance and make material purchasing decisions. They also provide information used to calculate the environmental impacts of finished products such as ready-mix and precast concrete.

By aligning cement and supplementary material reporting, the new framework supports more consistent evaluation of products incorporating coal ash and other cementitious ingredients.