As part of their sustainability journey, Precision Refrigeration recently achieved ECV for key products in their portfolio. In this interview, we speak with the team to explore their experience of the verification process, how it supports accurate embodied carbon measurement, and its role in reducing environmental impact.
The discussion highlights how Precision Refrigeration is using ECV to strengthen product credibility, inform design improvements, and support customers in meeting low-carbon procurement requirements. The insights shared here underline the company’s commitment to sustainability, innovation, and industry leadership in embodied carbon reduction.
How has your organisation used CIBSE TM65 to assess embodied carbon in building services products, and what impact has it had on your decision-making process?
At Precision Refrigeration, we adopted CIBSE TM65 as a core methodology to quantify and understand the embodied carbon within our commercial refrigeration products. Given the nature of our industry-where material selection, energy performance, and compliance with sustainability regulations are critical- CIBSE TM65 has enabled us to move beyond operational energy considerations and focus on the full environmental impact of materials and components used in our designs.
In practice, we began by applying CIBSE TM65 to all our core models, including MCU311 counter and HPU150 undercounter refrigerators. Through detailed material breakdowns-capturing the weights of metals, plastics refrigerants, electronics and insulation we can identify carbon hotspots that hadn’t previously been. The methodology’s structured framework gave us a new level of clarity on where our environmental impact originates, and identifying areas for us to improve on.
This insight directly shaped our product development and procurement strategies. It has led us to explore lower impact material alternatives, rethinking design choices during early-stage reviews, and engage our suppliers in meaningful conversations about upstream emissions. CIBSE TM65 data is now integrated into our internal sustainability metrics and has become a valuable tool in aligning our R&D work with our wider carbon reduction commitments. Most important, it has shifted embodied carbon from being a background consideration to a key design and business driver-ensuring that our innovation efforts are aligned with the principles of long-term environmental responsibility
What do you consider to be the most valuable aspect of CIBSE TM65 – is it the methodology, the simplicity, the standardisation, or something else?
What makes it stand out for you or your clients?
The most valuable aspect of CIBSE TM65, from our perspective, is the balance it strikes between technical robustness and practical useability. The methodology is clear and well-defined, yet it remains practical and achievable-especially for manufacturers who are just beginning to integrate embodied carbon assessment into their process.
What truly sets CIBSE TM65 apart is its ability to simplify a complex subject without compromising on integrity. It enables us to generate product-level carbon data in a consistent and standardised way, which not only improves our internal decision making but also supports better communication with kitchen designers, dealers, and sustainability consultants. Clients increasingly expect this kind of transparency and CIBSE TM65 allows us to respond confidently with reliable, comparable figures.
Moreover, CIBSE TM65 has helped bring embodied carbon into everyday conversations across departments- from engineering to procurement and even marketing. It has become a common language we can use both internally and externally, making sustainability a shared responsibility rather than a siloed goal. That inclusivity and clarity is what makes CIBSE TM65 stand out.
To what extent has CIBSE TM65 influenced your approach to sustainability, procurement, or specification within your projects?
CIBSE TM65 has had a meaningful influence on the way we approach sustainability across multiple areas of our business, particularly in design, procurement, and material specification. By providing a clear picture of the embodied carbon in our products, it has prompted us to re-evaluate some of our standard practices and consider new alternatives with a lower environmental impact.
In procurement, we now assess materials not only in terms of performance and cost, but also carbon impact. CIBSE TM65 has helped highlight where certain materials or components contribute disproportionately to a product’s footprint, leading us to explore substitutes or design adjustments that can reduce that impact. This has also opened up more constructive conversations with our suppliers about transparency and environmental responsibility.
On the design side, CIBSE TM65 has become a useful decision-making tool early in the product development cycle. It allows our teams to make more informed choices around material use, component design, and overall efficiency. These insights are feeding into our broader sustainability goals and helping ensure that carbon reduction is embedded into the DNA of our product strategy, not treated as an afterthought.
In short, CIBSE TM65 has shifted our mindset from simply complying with sustainability requirements to actively seeking better, lower-carbon solutions across the entire lifecycle of our products.
How important do you think third-party or independent verification of CIBSE TM65 calculations would be for driving trust and consistency across the industry?
Independent verification of CIBSE TM65 calculations would play a valuable role in building trust and driving consistency across the industry. As more manufacturers adopt embodied carbon reporting, having a recognised and impartial review process would help ensure that data is both credible and comparable particularly as stakeholders increasingly rely on these figures for specification decisions and sustainability assessments.
For us, external verification adds an extra layer of confidence, not just internally, but in the eyes of our clients and partners. It reinforces our commitment to transparency and responsible reporting, which is becoming ever more important as environmental performance becomes a key differentiator in the market.
While CIBSE TM65 is already accessible and practical, introducing optional third-party verification could help reduce hesitation among those who are unsure about adopting the methodology. It would give stakeholders especially dealers, consultants, and end users greater assurance that the information presented is reliable and aligned with industry standards. In that sense, it wouldn’t just support wider adoption; it would also raise the overall quality and integrity of embodied carbon reporting across the sector.
How do you feel the Embodied Carbon Verification (ECV) service, developed by CIBSE Certification, meets the needs for transparency and accuracy around embodied carbon reporting?
The ECV service developed by CIBSE Certification is a strong step forward in bringing greater transparency and accuracy to embodied carbon reporting. It offers a formal, trusted framework to validate CIBSE TM65 assessments, helping to bridge the gap between in-house calculations and industry-wide confidence.
What stands out is that the service not only verifies the technical correctness of the calculations but also ensures consistency in how the methodology is applied. That consistency is essential not just for manufacturers, but for dealers, consultants, and end clients who need to compare products fairly and make informed decisions based on reliable data.
In our view, the ECV service supports a more open and credible reporting culture. It enhances accountability while also making it easier to communicate complex carbon data in a clear and standardised format. For companies like ours that are actively working to integrate sustainability into product development, this kind of third-party recognition adds real value and helps reinforce the integrity of our efforts.
How do you feel the annual monitoring aspect of the ECV service considers product changes and ensures accuracy around embodies carbon reporting?
The annual monitoring element of the ECV service is an important and forward-thinking addition. Products often evolve over time whether through design improvements, material substitutions, supply chain changes, or regulatory updates and this regular review process helps ensure that embodied carbon data remains current and credible.
Rather than treating embodied carbon reporting as a one-time exercise, the annual monitoring encourages an ongoing commitment to accuracy. It acknowledges that sustainability is a dynamic journey and allows organisations to reflect real-world changes in their reporting. For us, this means we can align our internal product updates with verified environmental data, providing stakeholders with information they can trust, year after year.
It also reinforces the idea that transparency isn’t static, it’s something that must be maintained and updated. In this sense, annual monitoring not only improves the technical quality of the data but also helps foster a culture of continuous improvement, both within our business and across the wider industry.
Are you seeing increased demand from clients or investors for low-carbon materials or verified data?
Absolutely. We’re seeing a clear shift in expectations from both clients and industry partners when it comes to carbon transparency. There’s a growing demand not just for energy-efficient performance, but also for verified data on embodied carbon and material impacts. Sustainability is no longer a value-add it’s becoming a baseline requirement in many procurement conversations.
Clients are increasingly asking for evidence of low-carbon choices in both materials and design, and they want that evidence to be backed by data they can trust. Verified carbon reporting, such as through CIBSE TM65 and services like ECV, gives them the confidence that the claims being made are credible and consistent with industry standards.
This demand is also starting to influence broader investment and partnership decisions. Being able to demonstrate that we’re measuring, reporting, and actively working to reduce embodied carbon has strengthened our positioning in the market and aligned us with forward-thinking stakeholders who prioritise long-term environmental responsibility.
In short, the call for low-carbon solutions is growing louder and verified data is the key to answering it credibly.
At Precision Refrigeration, embracing CIBSE TM65 has marked a turning point in how we approach sustainability in product design, material selection, and business strategy. What began as a technical framework has evolved into a powerful driver of change across our operations—shaping procurement decisions, strengthening supplier conversations, and helping us deliver greater transparency to our clients.
The clarity and practicality of CIBSE TM65 have made embodied carbon more accessible, allowing us to take meaningful steps without complexity becoming a barrier. With the support of the ECV service and its annual monitoring, we’re confident that our reporting remains accurate, up-to-date, and aligned with industry expectations. Most importantly, we’re seeing a real appetite for verified, low-carbon data from clients and stakeholders, proof that the industry is ready for transformation, and tools like CIBSE TM65 are helping lead the way.
Discover Embodied Carbon Verification and start your journey to carbon transparency.