A precast concrete plant or a prefab housing line increasingly gets asked for more than a CE mark and an IP rating on the boxes going into its walls. Environmental and green-procurement criteria are showing up earlier in the specification stage, and a documented carbon footprint — not just a compliance statement — is becoming part of what a buyer has to produce before a project is signed off. Two of our product families, built specifically for concrete and prefab work, already carry that documentation.
Where this requirement is actually coming from
Construction is one of the sectors most directly affected by tightening environmental procurement rules across Europe, and the requirement rarely arrives as a single named standard. It shows up as a client’s internal sustainability policy, a public-sector tender criterion, a developer’s own reporting obligation, or a request from a main contractor who is themselves being asked further up the chain. What these routes have in common is that a supplier is asked to produce a number with a defined methodology behind it, not a general statement that the product is “eco-friendly.”
What a precast or prefab project typically needs to show
In practice, the request usually resolves into three questions: does a verified environmental declaration exist for the product, does it cover the exact model or the family the project is specifying, and is it still within its validity period. A declaration that has expired, or one that was calculated for a different model in the same range, does not answer the request even if it looks similar on paper.
What our concrete and prefab families already have documented
Two of our families carry declarations built specifically around this use case.
| Family | Typical use | EPD / standard | GWP-fossil, A1–A3 | Valid until |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concrete & Precast Boxes (e.g. ETM850S) | Cast directly into concrete elements at a precast plant | EPD Hub HUB-6177, EN 50693 | 7.3 kg CO2e per kg | 13 May 2031 |
| Prefab Outlet Box and Parts (e.g. ETM750S) | Modular and prefabricated housing lines, hollow wall or concrete casting | EPD Hub HUB-3603, EN 15804+A2 | 3.80 kg CO2e per kg | 3 Jul 2030 |
Both declarations report the product’s full life cycle, not only the manufacturing stage: raw material sourcing, transport to a distribution centre, end-of-life collection and a recycling and energy-recovery credit are all included, and both were produced at a facility that used a mix of on-site solar generation and grid electricity in the reporting year. Full figures, including GWP-total, secondary material recovery and freshwater use, are on our Environmental Data and Carbon Footprint page.
What still needs to be requested per project
Neither declaration should be assumed to extend automatically to every model in its family, and the declared unit differs between reporting bases — the general flush-mounting box family is declared per unit, the concrete and prefab families per kilogram — so figures should not be compared across families without checking the unit first. If a specific model, market or compliance file needs the current certificate, request it with the exact model reference rather than relying on a figure quoted for a different model in the same range.
A short checklist before the file goes to the client
- Confirm which exact model is specified, not just the family or series.
- Check the declaration is still within its stated validity window.
- Confirm the declared unit matches how the figure will be used in the project’s own carbon accounting.
- Request the current certificate directly rather than reusing a file from an earlier project or a different model.
Precast concrete applications → · Prefab & modular housing applications → · Environmental data and carbon footprint →