Sustainability Series
Week 1: Measuring and reporting carbon
This week's resources bring together the latest guidance on the measurement and reporting of the embodied carbon of concrete. Brand new resources for this week include: An update on environmental product declarations (EPDs) for concrete, latest UK benchmarking data for the embodied carbon of concrete and an expanded revision of The Concrete Centre’s online tool for comparing the embodied carbon of different concrete frame solutions. We draw attention to the UK cement and concrete net zero pathway and its most recent possible decarbonisation trajectory and share the results of some analysis of measuring the embodied and whole life carbon of masonry homes using the new tool from the Future Homes Hub.
__________________________________________________________________
Launch event: Concrete decarbonisation through collaboration
Thank you to all those who attended, both in-person and virtually, the Sustainability Series launch event which took place on Monday 23 September, at Coin Street Community Centre, London..
Speakers from across the value chain provided an overview and update of current collaborative initiatives and projects aiming to accelerate decarbonisation in the manufacture, specification, design and construction of concrete and projects using concrete.
Catch up on-demand: A presentation given on the evening has now been recorded as an on-demand resource. The webinar is available here.
__________________________________________________________________
Spotlight on: Embodied carbon of concrete benchmarking
The 2024 update of the Low Carbon Concrete Group Market Benchmark is now available. The LCCG Market Benchmark was created to provide a mechanism for rating the embodied carbon of concrete within the range of concretes in use across the market based on strength. This update provides the latest data and a revised labelling system to avoid confusion between dynamic and static benchmarks.
- Download the latest guide and data published by The Concrete Centre on behalf of the LCCG here.
Spotlight on: EPDs for concrete
Environmental product declarations, or EPDs, provide transparent data on construction products to help designers choose building materials with lower environmental impacts. An EPD is based on a life cycle assessment (LCA) over the full product value chain using indicators for climate change and other environmental impacts, as well as resource use. In 2024, MPA published five new sector EPDs for ready-mixed concrete, to help designers understand and quantify the impacts of their mix design choices.
- More information and links to sector EPDs for cement, ready-mixed concrete and precast products are available here.
- The latest issue of Concrete Quarterly includes a technical article explaining why EPDs are becoming increasingly important and how designers can best use them to inform early-stage decisions. It is available to read here.
Spotlight on: Concept - ECO2 of concrete frame comparison tool
A new version of Concept is now available. This free tool enables users to quickly compare the embodied carbon of a wide range of concrete frame options. Version 5 includes the addition of a waffle slab option as well as enabling users to select beam widths for selected frame types. Concept also calculates approximate cost and construction time and provides initial element sizes for each frame type.
- Concept version 5 is available to download here.
- More information on Concept including a step-by-step user guide is available here.
Spotlight on: Measuring the Whole Life Carbon of New Homes
In May 2024 the Future Homes Hub launched a simple, free Whole Life Carbon Assessment Tool for new housing, along with a set of consistent conventions, the aim being to provide an industry-wide baseline to help inform a long-term roadmap, for industry to reduce its embodied carbon footprint.
- This bitesize video introduces the tool and its development, and shares the results of some early analyses using it.
Spotlight on: The UK Concrete and Cement Industry net zero pathway
In October 2020 the MPA published its decarbonisation roadmap to beyond net zero by 2050. It demonstrated that significant decarbonisation had already been achieved across the sector since 1990, but also set a further direction of travel. Earlier this year a more detailed possible pathway for achieving net zero was published.
- Read the latest trajectory here.
For further information on design and specification to reduce the embodied carbon of development using concrete please refer to the numerous existing resources on The Concrete Centre website. In addition, Week 2 of this Sustainability Series will be highlighting new and evolving resources.