Congrats NLMK‑Kaluga on your first EPDs

What just launched

NLMK‑Kaluga LLC has published its first wave of product‑specific EPDs in June 2025, covering two POWERLUG floodlight luminaires. A third declaration for a sealed linear luminaire followed later in the year. The scope reads as single‑SKU declarations rather than a broad family, which keeps comparisons clean for specifiers sorting by fixture type and output.

Why this matters in real bids

When a project models embodied carbon, a product without a product‑specific EPD often drags in conservative defaults that make selection harder. A verified EPD replaces guesswork with the manufacturer’s own numbers, which improves spec odds and reduces change‑out risk when targets tighten under LEED v5 language and owner policies. It is the difference between showing up with receipts or with a shrug.

Who verified the documents

The program operator is EPD Hub, a digital‑first operator recognized as an Established ECO EPD Programme Operator, with thousands of listings visible through its library and the ECO Portal (over 4,300 EPDs as stated by EPD Hub, 2025) (EPD Hub press release, 2025). That visibility matters when project teams search by category and location (ECO Platform, 2025) (ECO Platform, 2025). The life‑cycle work is credited on record, and in this case reflects an external LCA consultant supporting the modeling and documentation.

The product categories now covered

The June publications address outdoor and industrial lighting where durability, optics, and mounting options drive selection. These are fixtures that show up on plant perimeters, yards, and harsh interior zones. The October addition extends into sealed linear lighting for utility spaces. Together they open doors across industrial sites, logistics, manufacturing, and public infrastructure where product‑specific EPDs are increasingly the price of entry.

Quick background on the manufacturer

NLMK‑Kaluga operates within heavy‑duty building supply chains, serving construction and industrial customers that buy on performance, availability, and compliance. Publishing EPDs for lighting equipment signals a pragmatic read of where specs are headed and puts quantified impacts on the table instead of marketing generalities.

Closest competitors and the transparency bar

Signify’s portfolio shows product pages with downloadable EPDs across mainstream lines, which sets a high bar in lighting and normalizes EPD‑backed submittals for everyday fixtures (see examples on Signify product pages that include EPD downloads: example 1, example 2). Fagerhult also publishes product‑specific luminaire EPDs through European operators and has widened coverage across interior and task lighting. Against that context, NLMK‑Kaluga has entered the transparency arena in lighting and begun closing a gap that once kept industrial fixtures out of EPD‑sensitive specs.

What this debut means competitively

For buyers, a verified EPD often unlocks faster approvals and fewer substitution debates. For sales teams, it means conversations shift to performance, optics, and delivery instead of carbon assumptions. NLMK‑Kaluga is now credibly on the list for projects that filter for product‑specific EPDs. The move is small on paper and big in practice, like switching from a mixtape to streaming where the track you need is always there.

One more thing spec teams ask

There is no recognized industry‑wide EPD for LED luminaires. Product‑specific, third‑party verified documents are how lighting brands win in carbon‑counted projects today. If you are weighing where to start, pick the SKUs that appear on most project schedules and expand from there. Here is a plain‑language explainer on luminaire EPDs and rule sets for reference: Is There an Industry‑wide EPD for LED Luminaires?

Can we see the EPDs on the company website

We could not locate an EPD landing page on kaluga.nlmk.com or the main nlmk.com site at the time of writing. Publishing a direct link from the sustainability or product pages is a quick win for discoverability and submittal speed. It is a small web task that pays back on every RFI. Teams should definately add a permanent EPD section and keep it updated when new declarations land.

The takeaway

NLMK‑Kaluga’s June launch moves lighting SKUs from datasheet talk to verified impacts. Competitors already show that EPDs are standard practice in this category. With these first entries live and searchable through a recognized operator, the brand has joined the shortlist for carbon‑aware projects and set a clear path to expand coverage across adjacent fixture families next.