Focus on Sustainability – Products, EPD, and report

Hi again! I will start the new year by describing what I did during the last weeks of 2022. Briefly, I have been working with sustainability in different ways. Since I am interested in sustainability it was both fruitful and fun to get a better and deeper insight into this.

During these weeks I was working at Product Center, a department for product development at Thomas Betong, Sweden. In parallel, I was working on the sustainability report for 2022 for Thomas Concrete Group. I have done this in parallel since November and will continue doing so until March to varying extents, but more about the report in a later blog post.

At Product Center, I was warmly welcomed by Mats, Janna, and Christoper who really shared and invited me into their workdays. I have got the opportunity to test and get involved in different activities and contexts. Just to mention a few, I was involved in the work related to products in the integration of Sollebrunns Betongelement (acquired and part of Thomas Betong, Sweden, since the 1st of January 2023). I also made test mixes of concrete with alternative binders in the lab and the following tests and have been involved in development projects. In this way, I have got a great insight into the workdays.

However, my main focus has been on EPDs and development of a competitor analysis together with Janna. To be really honest, I didn’t really know what an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) is before this bloc at Product Center. I knew what an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) is, but not EPD. Therefore, getting a deeper insight into this was both interesting and educational. What is an EPD? What does an EPD include? How to develop an EPD? What is the area of use for an EPD?

In the competitor analysis, we focused on prefabricated products from the perspective of EPD and compared our offer with the offer of our competitors. Moreover, we identified potential areas for further development. Besides my increased knowledge about EPDs, the project also increased my understanding of our prefabricated products. Also, we will present the results of our analysis in a few weeks which I am looking forward to!

I also got the opportunity to represent Team Thomas at a carrier fair at Chalmers, a university in Gothenburg, which was very fun. At the fair, we met many interested and talented students which were inspiring. Besides, I met some old friends from Chalmers who attended the fair representing their companies which were fun as well.


Next up it is time to get another insight into business area prefabrication during some weeks in production at our plants in Heby followed by a week with the sales team.

See you!