Decarbonization in motion: VSL’s progress and priorities for lower-carbon construction
VSL International
VSL’s 2021-2025 results show progress in reducing the carbon intensity of its activities, while highlighting the continuing challenge of lowering absolute emissions. Guided by its 2024-2027 roadmap, VSL is addressing emissions across its operations and supply chain, strengthening project carbon management and developing solutions that support lower-carbon construction.
Measuring progress and recognizing the challenges
In 2025, VSL’s absolute Scope 3 emissions reached 125,500 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e), down from 145,200 tCO₂e in 2024. This represents a reduction of approximately 14% year on year and 9% compared with the 2021 baseline.
Over the same four-year period, carbon intensity decreased by approximately 30%, from 417 to 290 kilograms of CO₂e per thousand euros of activity.These results show an overall improvement, although progress has not been linear. Absolute emissions increased in 2022 and 2023 before declining in 2024 and 2025, while carbon intensity rose slightly between 2024 and 2025. Maintaining progress requires sustained action on materials, procurement, design and operational practices.
Addressing emissions across the supply chain
Upstream Scope 3 emissions account for 95% of VSL’s emissions, making the supply chain a central focus of its decarbonization efforts.
To better understand the environmental impact of its products, VSL has published six Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), covering 25% of its products, and invested in software to develop EPDs internally. These assessments help identify the most carbon-intensive components, compare alternatives and inform decisions on designs, technologies and sourcing.Steel strands are a particular area of focus. In 2025, reduced strand purchasing led to a 3,000-tonne reduction in CO₂ emissions. VSL also launched its open-source Strand Climate Score to compare the carbon impact of steel strands worldwide and support progress across the industry.
The 2024-2027 roadmap extends these efforts through lower-carbon strands and grout, reduced product emissions and the reuse of temporary works.
Embedding carbon management into projects and operations
VSL’s roadmap combines action on its own energy consumption with a more systematic approach to project carbon management.
For Scopes 1 and 2, priorities include renewable electricity, reduced fuel consumption and the use of lower-carbon fuels. At project level, carbon tracking, low-carbon assessments and alternative designs support more informed decisions about construction methods and material use.
The roadmap also includes the TopSite CSR label for projects and factories, alongside measures to strengthen resilience to climate risks across sites, factories, workshops and suppliers.
Responsible timber sourcing, responsible or reused wooden packaging, and training on climate, biodiversity and corporate social responsibility complement this approach.
Supporting the transition through specialist solutions
Beyond reducing its own footprint, VSL contributes to infrastructure serving the low-carbon economy, including rail and metro networks, wind farms and nuclear facilities, as well as repair and preservation projects.
Activity in these areas represented €130 million, or 30% of VSL’s activity, in 2025. This compares with €216 million and 42% in 2024, underlining that this contribution varies from year to year.VSL’s specialist solutions also offer opportunities to optimize material use and preserve existing assets. These include post-tensioned and voided slabs, arch bridges, VSoL® retaining structures, and repair and strengthening techniques that extend structures’ service life.
Through its 2024-2027 roadmap, VSL is pursuing further opportunities such as post-tensioning for timber infrastructure and the assembly of reclaimed concrete elements, combining specialist engineering with practical action to support lower-carbon construction.