IN Brief:
- Doka has expanded Product Carbon Footprint calculations to more than 9,000 formwork and scaffolding products.
- PCF information can be supplied for purchased and rented equipment, including calculations apportioned to individual rental periods.
- Product-level data gives project teams another procurement input, although lifecycle boundaries, allocation methods, and reuse assumptions remain important.
Doka has expanded Product Carbon Footprint data across more than 9,000 formwork and scaffolding products, increasing the amount of product-level emissions information available to contractors making procurement and lifecycle decisions.
The company provides PCF calculations for purchased and rented equipment, with project-specific information available alongside quotations or invoices. Rental products can be calculated proportionally to the period for which they are used, reflecting the fact that temporary works systems are normally reused across multiple construction projects.
Doka previously reported carbon calculations for around 7,000 products in 2024. The latest expansion takes that coverage beyond 9,000 items across its wider portfolio of formwork and scaffolding equipment.
Temporary works present a particular carbon-accounting problem because their environmental impact cannot be treated in the same way as a product permanently installed in a building. Panels, beams, frames, props, platforms, and climbing systems may be manufactured once, maintained over many years, transported repeatedly, and deployed on dozens of sites before reaching the end of their service life.
Allocating the entire manufacturing impact to the first project would therefore misrepresent how the equipment is used. At the other extreme, assuming an unrealistically long service life or perfect utilisation can spread manufacturing emissions so thinly that the resulting figure no longer reflects operating conditions.
Product Carbon Footprint calculations attempt to create a consistent basis between those positions by defining lifecycle boundaries and allocating greenhouse-gas emissions to the product according to an established methodology.
For contractors, the information adds another input to temporary-works selection alongside structural capacity, concrete pressure, cycle time, labour requirements, lifting strategy, safety, programme, and cost. Carbon does not replace those engineering considerations, but product-level figures make it easier to include emissions in the comparison where two systems can deliver a similar technical result.
The timing of that comparison is important. Carbon information has greater practical value before a package is ordered, when designers and procurement teams can still alter system selection, quantities, rental periods, transport arrangements, or reuse strategies.
Once equipment has reached site, many of those decisions have already been fixed. Calculating emissions after the work is complete may improve reporting, but it has far less influence on the physical construction method.
The data is also relevant to Scope 3 reporting. Much of a main contractor’s overall emissions exposure sits outside fuel and electricity consumed directly on site, extending into purchased goods, hired equipment, transport, manufacturing, and other supply-chain activities.
Supplier-level information can reduce dependence on generic emissions factors in those calculations. It also gives contractors a clearer basis for asking whether the equipment they hire for temporary works carries materially different upstream impacts depending on design, material content, expected lifespan, and utilisation.
Doka is using the same calculations internally to identify emissions hotspots in product development. Reducing material content while retaining structural performance, extending service life, increasing repairability, and improving reuse can all alter the footprint allocated across repeated deployments.
Reuse is particularly important for formwork. A panel or frame that completes more construction cycles before replacement can distribute its production impact across a larger volume of work, provided the additional life is achieved without disproportionate repair, transport, or replacement activity elsewhere in the system.
That also makes maintenance part of the carbon calculation. Equipment that is damaged prematurely or handled poorly may have a shorter real service life than assumed in a standard model, reducing the benefit attributed to repeated reuse.
Doka’s own methodology documentation acknowledges that limitation. Expected technical lifespan depends on defined handling and environmental conditions, while actual service life can vary according to use, maintenance, corrosion exposure, and other factors.
The company also states that PCF information is based on defined calculation methods and assumptions rather than representing an independently measured absolute value for every individual product in service. Project teams therefore need to understand the system boundary behind a number before treating it as directly comparable with another supplier’s figure.
That is particularly important where lifecycle stages differ. A value covering raw material extraction and manufacturing cannot automatically be compared with a figure that also incorporates transport, use, maintenance, or end-of-life treatment simply because both are expressed in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Doka says it has worked with industry partners on calculation standards through the European concrete formwork quality association. Greater methodological consistency would make product data more useful in tender comparison, particularly where clients are beginning to request package-level evidence rather than broad corporate sustainability statements.
The expanded dataset could also make integration with estimating, lifecycle assessment, and digital procurement systems more practical. A small number of manually calculated products can support individual studies; thousands of structured records are more useful if carbon is expected to become part of routine package selection.
Doka is targeting net-zero operations by 2040 and positions product carbon information alongside renewable energy, logistics, repair, reuse, and recycling within its wider sustainability programme. For contractors, the immediate value is narrower: more of the temporary-works package can now be assessed using supplier-specific information rather than a generic assumption.
The number of products covered is therefore less significant than how the data is used. If carbon information reaches designers and buyers early enough to influence system choice, rental strategy, transport, and reuse, PCF moves from retrospective reporting into the construction decision itself.
