MPA Precast has published five new sector Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for precast concrete cladding, significantly improving the quality and usability of environmental data for Whole Life Carbon Assessments.

The EPDs cover the main cladding types used across the UK market:

• Grey concrete cladding
• White concrete cladding
• Brick-faced cladding
• Stone-faced cladding
• Sandwich panels

Based on 2023 member production data from 12 factories, they represent well over 90% of UK precast cladding, making them highly robust and representative.

Built for Accurate LCAs

High-quality data is essential for credible LCAs. These EPDs have been designed to integrate easily into real world project assessments and improve accuracy.

Following guidance from Façade & Metal Cladding Design Consultants, single-skin EPDs include only the precast cladding element, excluding insulation and internal finishes. In this vein external fixings are also standardised at a minimum of 7 kg/m², allowing assessors to adjust and up lift values to suit project-specific designs.

The EPDs capture a wide range of impacts, from materials and mould use to factory installed capital goods such as renewable energy systems. They also comply with new Eco-Platform requirements on GGBS and other SCMs, ensuring that any datapoints used for GGBS or fly ash are based on economic allocation.

We used the most trusted national references for different scenarios at stages A4, A5, B1, and Module C, including statistics from the National Federation of Demolition Contractors for End-of-Life assumptions and default transport factors from IStructE’s “How to Calculate Embodied Carbon”. The scenarios are also compliant with the RICS “Whole Life Carbon Assessment”

Lower Carbon Results

The new data shows clear progress since previous EPDs in 2017 and 2019, with grey precast cladding now achieving GWP (Net) values as low as:

66.6 kg CO₂e per m²

Hafiz Elhag, Sustainability Manager (Concrete Products) said:

“These EPDs are about giving the industry data it can trust and actually use. By making the datasets more representative and flexible, we’re enabling more accurate LCAs and better-informed design decisions.”

Download all sector EPDs here