Out of its stated interest to incentivize the easier procurement of more sustainable building materials industry-wide, the powerful Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) today announced the launch of a new Low Carbon Ratings (LCR) system for concrete and cement building products. This first-of-its-kind AA to G scale designations system "enable[s] cement and concrete to be identified based on their carbon footprints" via a method.  The GCCA notes that their system is designed to be used alongside Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), which by definition are third-party verified, adding that it can be adapted to the rules of individual countries with differing practices for carbon accounting, such as the UK. The system will set numerical definitions in terms of units of embodied carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne for cement and per cubic metre of concrete product (ECO2e /m3), also referred to as Global Warming Potential (GWP).