USG, in brief: products and EPD coverage

Who USG is

USG is a major building materials manufacturer in the Knauf family with operations across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The company has public 2030 goals, including a verified plan to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 30 percent and Scope 3 by 15 percent, with SBTi approval and progress updates shared on its website (USG, 2025) (USG Sustainability Goals).

Product range at a glance

USG is not a pure play. Its portfolio spans walls, ceilings, and floors.

• Gypsum board and sheathing, plus specialty boards like mold resistant, abuse resistant, and lightweight.
• Joint treatment systems, trims, and beads.
• Cement board, tile backer, and structural panels.
• Acoustical ceiling panels, metal and specialty grid, and integrated systems.
• Self leveling underlayments, primers, and waterproofing membranes.

The catalog reaches into the hundreds of SKUs across North America, from commodity board to high end acoustic systems. That breadth means more PCRs to navigate and more plants to model, which is where process discipline matters most.

EPD coverage, in plain English

As of late November 2025, USG maintains a large library of current, product specific EPDs across its core lines. Wallboard families, acoustical panels, ceiling suspension systems, cement board and structural panels, and self leveling underlayments are well represented. Several EPDs are published through widely used program operators such as ASTM International and UL, which helps specifiers find them quickly.

Practically, this means USG shows up in Division 09 selections with EPDs for the items most often written into specs. Teams chasing LEED or internal carbon led procurement can count these toward credit thresholds without hunting for alternatives.

Where gaps likely remain

Like most multibrand catalogs, coverage is thinner in accessories that ride along with the main system. Think fasteners, certain trims, specialty tapes, niche primers, and project specific adhesives. Some SKUs exist as regional or plant specific variants, and those sometimes lag on declarations. If any joint treatment or accessory items still lack an EPD, they are prime, fast win candidates because volumes are high and substitution risk is real.

A quick internal audit usually surfaces five to ten SKUs that appear on almost every submittal. Getting those declared closes the leak in the spec funnel. It is the difference between being considered first or being value engineered out when carbon accounting bites.

The competitive field USG meets on jobs

Gypsum systems often pit USG against CertainTeed, National Gypsum, Georgia‑Pacific, and American Gypsum. In ceilings, Armstrong, Rockfon, and CertainTeed Ceilings are frequent alternatives. For tile backer and cementitious boards, consider James Hardie and National Gypsum’s PermaBase. For self leveling underlayments, Ardex and MAPEI show up in alternates.

Many of these competitors publish EPDs for their flagship lines, so a missing declaration on a USG accessory can tip a spec toward an otherwise equivalent system on projects with sustainability screens. No one wants to lose the room because a small pail lacked paperwork. That’s silly, but it happens.

Why this matters for LEED points and project policy

Under LEED v4.1, the Environmental Product Declarations credit awards 1 to 2 points when teams document qualifying EPDs across a minimum number of permanently installed products, and product specific Type III EPDs are valued more highly in the count (USGBC, 2024) (USGBC EPD Credit Guide, LEED v4.1 MR credit overview). Owners with ESG procurement rules often mirror this logic. When a product lacks a declaration, design teams must use conservative assumptions that penalize selection, so declared products tend to stay in place during value reviews.

What a smart EPD sprint looks like

Start with a bill of materials from your top three verticals, then rank SKUs by revenue and spec frequency. Map each to the governing PCR and to the plant that actually runs volume. The right LCA partner will do the heavy lifting on data collection across utilities, upstream materials, and packaging, keep plant teams focused, and advise on the program operator that matches your market. A tight sprint can convert a small backlog of high impact SKUs into published, third party verified EPDs with minimal disruption.

Pick the next 12 months of reference data, align on cradle to gate scope unless customers need modules beyond A1 to A3, and publish in batches so your sales and technical teams can talk to customers with confidence.

Bottom line for manufacturers benchmarking USG

USG’s EPD library is broad where it counts, and its public climate targets give extra credibility with owners and GCs who read the fine print (USG, 2025). If you compete with them, closing accessory gaps is your quickest path to parity or advantage. If you are USG, keep the cadence up, especially on joint treatment and other ride along SKUs that still need coverage. The work is boring, methodical, and incredibly valuable, and it definately pays off in the spec room.