Concrete Compass: Market benchmarking

Navigating to useful resources and guidance

Figure 1: LCCG Market Benchmark for embodied carbon, normal weight concrete, LCA stages A1 to A3. 

This Concrete Compass is designed to provide more information on the Low Carbon Concrete Group (LCCG) Market Benchmark, that can inform how designers choose low carbon concretes.

The LCCG Market Benchmark

The LCCG Market Benchmark summarises the distribution of cradle-to-gate gross carbon emissions of normal weight concrete recently produced in the UK. The Benchmark covers LCA stages A1 to A3 (“cradle to batching plant gate”, or “cradle to precasting mould”). The Benchmark is prepared by the LCCG and is updated annually to reflect changes in the UK market.

The LCCG was formed by the Green Construction Board (GCB) and is the author of the Low Carbon Concrete Routemap, published in 2022. The Routemap looked at the best practice for making and using concrete, building on the UK Concrete and Cement Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero, published in 2020 by the Mineral Products Association (MPA).

The first step in concrete decarbonisation is to measure embodied carbon and to establish a baseline from which reductions can be made. The LCCG Market Benchmark was developed to provide a mechanism for rating the embodied carbon of concretes (ready-mixed and precast) in use across the UK market, based on strength class; it is currently based on ready-mixed data only. While expressing embodied carbon as kgCO₂e/m³ relative to (28-day) strength class may not apply to all types of concrete or every application in all regions, the LCCG Market Benchmark serves as a valuable starting point for assessing the embodied carbon of concrete used in the UK.

Embodied carbon of concrete: Market Benchmark guide, published by MPA The Concrete Centre on behalf of the LCCG is based on data from the MPA accounting for approximately 55% of the ready-mixed concretes produced in the UK in 2025.

The LCCG Market Benchmark is a tool to assess the embodied carbon of concrete. The tool must be used in the context of reducing overall project and global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

More information

• A spreadsheet can be downloaded which assesses the Benchmark rating of concrete mixes and plots the mixes on the LCCG market benchmark.
• The LCCG welcomes high quality data to assist in providing information to assist the assessment and reduction of the embodied carbon of concrete in the UK. For more information visit the LCCG website.

Key guidance

• Specifying Sustainable Concrete - these guides, each focusing on a different constituent part of concrete, assist designers in making effective decisions regarding the design and specification of concrete for a sustainable outcome using BS 8500.

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