RSSThe UK concrete industry’s 7th Sustainability Performance report has been launched at Ecobuild in London.
Based on 2013 data, the report demonstrates that progress has been considerable, but the industry is committed to ensuring that momentum is maintained.
The annual performance report is part of the Concrete Industry Sustainable Construction Strategy, which is helping concrete manufacturers tackle impacts such as embodied energy and resource efficiency, as well as changing market demands such as Building Information Modelling (BIM).
A key highlight from the report shows that concrete is locally and responsibly sourced (91% of concrete is certified to BES 6001). Concrete and reinforcement steel can both be certified to responsible sourcing standard BES 6001, and choosing responsibly sourced materials is a simple way to ensure that there is a sustainable chain of custody.
Another key point is that concrete is a net user of waste: 79 times more waste and recovered materials were used than were sent to landfill.
Use of cementitious by-products, derived from other industries in concrete, also helps to reduce concrete’s embodied CO2 emissions. In 2013, 28.6% of all cementitious materials used were by-products while the target for 2020 is 35%.
There is also an opportunity to use recycled materials in concrete.
The proportion of recycled or secondary aggregates used in concrete production is around 6% by mass and this can be either directly, as recycled aggregate, or indirectly, such as the ferrous metal reused in the manufacture of most steel reinforcement.
Environmental rating schemes such as BREEAM (said to be the world's foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings) encourage the use both of aggregates that have previously been used, and of secondary aggregates such as granulated slag.
A further highlight reveals that the concrete industry is committed to further breducing carbon: CO2 per tonne of concrete has reduced by 22% since 1990.
The initial focus of the industry strategy was on reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for every tonne of concrete produced. The reduction in concrete’s embodied CO2 has seen the 1990 figure fall from 103kg of CO2/tonne of concrete to 79.7kg in 2013. The target for 2020 is to reduce this figure to 71.8kg of CO2 /tonne of concrete, which equates to a 30% reduction from the 1990 baseline.
Andy Spencer, Chair of the
“We are committed to reducing our impacts during production and measuring sustainability as part of whole-life product stewardship. Our new report, the website and the event today, support this and are important in communicating this progress to our stakeholders, so that in turn improvements in industry performance can benefit our stakeholders and our built environment.
“The sustainability debates the concrete industry is involved in will shape the future of construction products and our built environment, as we recognise the role of natural capital, ecosystem services and a circular economy.”
Nigel Jackson, Chief Executive
The UK concrete industry strategy was launched in 2008, and in 2012 further extended its scope.
Now, it has developed this further with the launch of a series of resource efficiency action plans (REAPs), in partnership with WRAP (
The Concrete Industry’s 7th Sustainability Performance report can be downloaded here
