As cities, agencies, and property owners look for practical ways to reduce heat, extend pavement life, and meet sustainability goals, it’s no longer enough to ask “Does this product work?”
The bigger question is: What’s the environmental impact over its full lifecycle?
To help answer that, CoolSeal commissioned a third-party Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) conducted by ClimeCo. The goal was simple: clearly understand the environmental footprint of CoolSeal from production through installation.
What Is a Lifecycle Assessment (and Why It Matters)
A Lifecycle Assessment looks at the environmental impacts of a product from raw material sourcing through manufacturing, transportation, and installation. Rather than focusing on one attribute, like reflectivity or durability, an LCA shows where impacts truly occur and how significant they are.
For infrastructure decision-makers, LCAs help:
- Support LEED and sustainability reporting
- Inform procurement and specification decisions
- Compare products on a consistent, apples-to-apples basis
What the CoolSeal LCA Evaluated
The CoolSeal LCA followed internationally recognized ISO standards and focused on a cradle-to-gate boundary (also referred to as A1–A5):
- A1: Raw material production
- A2: Raw material transportation
- A3: Manufacturing
- A4: Transportation to the job site
- A5: Installation
The study evaluated impacts using a declared unit of one square meter of applied CoolSeal, which allows results to be compared consistently across projects and products.
It’s important to note that this study does not include the use phase or end-of-life. This is standard practice for Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and ensures clarity and consistency in reporting.
Environmental Impacts
The LCA measured six impact categories commonly used in LEED and sustainability assessments:
- Global Warming Potential: Greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint)
- Ozone Depletion: Impacts on the earth’s ozone layer
- Acidification: Air pollutants that contribute to acid rain
- Eutrophication: Nutrient pollution that affects waterways
- Smog Formation: Pollutants that contribute to ground-level ozone
- Non-Renewable Energy Use: Fossil energy consumption
Each category was calculated using verified data and peer-reviewed methodologies.
What the Results Showed
Across all six impact categories, one trend was clear: The majority of environmental impact comes from raw material production (A1).
Manufacturing, transportation, and installation contributed relatively small portions of the overall footprint. Installation impacts, in particular, were minimal due to efficient spray application and low material loss.
This means the environmental profile of CoolSeal is driven primarily by the materials required to deliver its performance—reflectivity, durability, and longevity—not by how it is applied in the field.
Efficiency Built Into Manufacturing and Installation
Several aspects of CoolSeal’s design help limit impacts beyond raw materials:
- Water-based formulation, avoiding solvent-based systems
- Bulk tanker delivery, eliminating packaging waste
- Computerized spray application, minimizing material loss
- Low fuel use during installation relative to total lifecycle impacts
These efficiencies help keep downstream impacts small and predictable for contractors and agencies alike.
Why This Matters
This type of lifecycle transparency is becoming increasingly important as states and municipalities look to make data-backed infrastructure decisions, especially in regions focused on heat mitigation and climate resilience.
In California, for example, state agencies have spent years researching and piloting cool pavement strategies as part of broader efforts to address urban heat islands and long-term infrastructure performance. While there is currently no statewide mandate requiring cool pavement coatings, California has invested heavily in lifecycle analysis tools, pilot programs, and guidance to help public agencies evaluate environmental tradeoffs across pavement materials.
As heat resilience strategies move from pilot programs into standard practice, verified lifecycle data is playing a larger role in procurement, specifications, and sustainability reporting. LCAs like the one completed for CoolSeal help agencies, property owners, and project teams prepare for evolving requirements while making informed decisions today.
