Carlisle CCW: products and the EPD coverage check
Carlisle Coatings & Waterproofing sits inside Carlisle’s building‑envelope family with a broad waterproofing and air‑barrier toolbox. The product footprint is robust. The public EPD footprint, far less so. Here is the fast snapshot manufacturers and spec teams want before a bid clock starts ticking.
Where CCW sits in the Carlisle universe
Carlisle Coatings & Waterproofing (CCW) is part of Carlisle’s building‑envelope platform alongside roofing, spray foam, and accessories. Carlisle reorganized these businesses around the envelope in 2022, grouping CCW with Henry and others to form the Weatherproofing Technologies segment (Carlisle Companies, 2022). Their corporate sustainability story is active and public, including ISO 14001 progress and recycling programs, which is worth a skim if you are mapping your own roadmap (Carlisle Construction Materials Sustainability).
Carlisle also spotlights measurable wins at group level. The Sikeston, MO polyiso plant earned LEED Platinum v4 for a manufacturing facility with a modeled 38% building performance improvement and over 10% on‑site renewable energy by cost (Carlisle press release, 2024). In its 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report, Carlisle states that more than $3.5B of revenue was from products that help buildings achieve LEED, about 70% of company revenue in that year (Carlisle 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report, 2025).
What CCW sells, in plain English
Think of CCW as the below‑grade and vertical‑wall specialist inside Carlisle. Its catalog spans roughly half a dozen categories with dozens to hundreds of SKUs.
- Air and vapor barriers, both self‑adhered sheets and fluid‑applied
- Below‑grade waterproofing membranes, bentonite systems, and plaza‑deck solutions
- Flashings and transition membranes
- Drainage composites and green‑roof components
- Wall insulations in select lines, including EPS and polyiso accessories
- Roofing underlayments for steep‑slope tie‑ins
That breadth lets CCW package wall and foundation continuity. For design teams, it is nice when one spec line can close the whole envelope loop.
EPD coverage today: where it is strong and where it is thin
Across Carlisle, EPD coverage is solid for single‑ply roofing membranes and polyiso boards. Much of that sits with sister brands like SynTec and Hunter under the Roofing and Insulation umbrellas. For CCW’s core below‑grade and air‑barrier systems, public, product‑specific EPDs are sparse by comparison.
If your bid set centers on a CCW self‑adhered air barrier sheet or pre‑applied foundation membrane, expect to answer the unavoidable question: is there a current, product‑specific EPD. Too often the answer appears to be no, or not yet. That does not mean the products underperform, only that third‑party environmental paperwork is not there to unlock credits or satisfy owner policies out of the box.
Why that gap matters commercially
Specs written to LEED v5 criteria and corporate procurement policies increasingly require product‑level EPDs. Without one, design teams default to conservative assumptions in whole‑building carbon models, which creates a penalty that nudges them toward alternatives carrying verified declarations. In real life that means your product can be perfectly fit‑for‑purpose yet still lose the head‑to‑head because paperwork tilts the playing field. The price of an EPD is frequently earned back with even one mid‑sized win, but teams only see the jobs they bid, not the ones they were never short‑listed for.
A practical example
Consider a flagship CCW self‑adhered sheet air barrier serving healthcare or education. If an architect asks for a product‑specific EPD, it is hard to point to a current document today. Meanwhile GCP Applied Technologies lists multiple current EPDs covering air barrier and below‑grade systems such as PERM‑A‑BARRIER and PREPRUFE published through NSF International, visible to specifiers and owners evaluating submittals in 2024 and 2025 (NSF International EPD registry, 2024). That visibility helps GCP products stay in the conversation when EPDs are a must‑have, not a nice‑to‑have.
Who CCW regularly meets in the spec arena
CCW’s like‑kind competitors on North American projects typically include GCP Applied Technologies for pre‑applied and post‑applied membranes and air barriers, SOPREMA for bituminous and PVC lines plus air and vapor control, and Johns Manville or GAF when roofing and insulation scope shape the envelope package. Sika’s Sarnafil shows up on the roof side, and Tremco appears in sealants and traffic‑bearing details. In K‑12, healthcare, and public‑sector work where EPD box‑checking is routine, the firms with product‑specific declarations tend to gain the early advantage.
Fastest path to close the EPD gap
If we were prioritizing a sprint plan, we would start with three families that drive the most specs.
- Self‑adhered sheet air barriers. High‑volume SKUs, broad climate use, and predictable formulations make these efficient EPD candidates. Pick one reference facility year and build a defensible bill of materials and energy profile.
- Pre‑applied below‑grade membranes. These show up on hospitals, labs, and podium construction. A strong product‑specific EPD removes friction for owners who mandate them.
- Fluid‑applied air barriers. The resin chemistry varies but the market pull is constant. An initial EPD on the best seller unlocks alternates across the line with modest incremental effort.
A capable LCA partner will benchmark PCR precedent from the competitors your sales team actually faces, then map facilities, utilities, and batch records into a clean data model. The right workflow makes data collection inside manufacturing painless and turns approvals with a chosen program operator into weeks, not quarters.
Picking the right PCRs so submittals sail through
A PCR is the rulebook of Monopoly. Ignore it and the game falls apart. For these product families, water‑resistive and air barriers PCRs and EN 15804 aligned rulesets are common choices in North America. A smart plan reads the room by checking the PCRs that competitors used, current expiry windows, and which program operator your target customers trust most in their region. That way your EPDs land where reviewers already know the format and will accept it without back‑and‑forth.
The commercial read for manufacturers
CCW clearly delivers technical depth across the envelope. The portfolio spans several categories with many SKUs, yet public EPD coverage trails roofing cousins inside the Carlisle stable. In markets chasing LEED v5 points or enforcing internal carbon policies, that gap costs consideration time and, at the margins, wins. Given Carlisle’s visible sustainability momentum and certifications at group level, closing the CCW EPD gap now would align the paperwork with the product reality and protect spec share. It’s the kind of low‑drama ops project that pays back fast. Let’s not overcomplicate it, this is very do‑able.
Parent‑level proof points to watch and cite in submittals when relevant include the Sikeston LEED Platinum v4 plant performance metrics noted above (Carlisle press release, 2024), plus the 2024 report’s revenue mix tied to LEED‑enabling products (Carlisle 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report, 2025). When your product EPDs join that story, the specification conversation feels seamless.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Carlisle Coatings & Waterproofing have many publicly available, product‑specific EPDs for its air barriers and below‑grade membranes?
Coverage appears limited today compared to roofing and insulation lines within Carlisle. That is why prioritizing EPDs for self‑adhered air barriers and pre‑applied below‑grade sheets is the quickest commercial lift.
Can corporate‑level sustainability wins help in submittals without product EPDs?
They help show direction but rarely satisfy LEED v5 or owner EPD requirements. Useful proof points include Carlisle’s LEED Platinum v4 plant metrics and 2024 sustainability results, yet product‑level EPDs remain the spec gatekeeper (Carlisle press release, 2024; Carlisle 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report, 2025).
Which competitors most often bring EPDs to the same scopes?
GCP Applied Technologies frequently publishes EPDs for air barriers and below‑grade waterproofing through NSF International. SOPREMA and Johns Manville also carry current declarations on key membrane families in North America. Use those as PCR and format benchmarks when kicking off your own program.
What should a first EPD wave include to maximize ROI?
Pick one best‑selling self‑adhered sheet air barrier, one pre‑applied foundation membrane, and one fluid‑applied air barrier. Use one reference year across the same plant to simplify data pulls, then replicate across close formulations for rapid coverage.
About the Author
Walker Ryan is a climate-tech entrepreneur focused on driving industrial decarbonization through better data. As the founder and CEO of Parq, he helps manufacturers generate high-quality, third-party–verified carbon disclosures at scale—accelerating a traditionally slow and expensive process. Before starting Parq, Walker led over $200 million in sustainability-focused investments as VP of Strategy & Growth at ReStream Solutions, following earlier experience in investment banking at Deutsche Bank. He brings a rare mix of capital markets expertise and hands-on sustainability knowledge to tackling the infrastructure of industrial emissions.
