Concrete well placed for sustainable construction

The Concrete Centre believes that concrete is well placed to deliver many of the Government's proposed targets that aim to provide long-term holistic sustainable construction solutions.

"We welcome the Government's Strategy for Sustainable Construction and commend the Government for taking such a long-term view of the challenges that face us" said Ian Cox, Chief Executive of The Concrete Centre: "The Strategy sets out visionary and robust targets which concrete is well suited to meet.

The concrete industry is successfully reducing its manufacturing environmental impact and there is increasing recognition of how the thermal mass, flood resilience and long-term robustness of concrete can provide buildings that work with the environment, rather than against it for a long period of time".

The Strategy sets out in one key document key Government and industry sustainable construction commitments and targets.

In particular, it recognises that the built environment is responsible for 47% of carbon emissions and that the construction industry consumes vast amounts of resources.

These are both major issues where the concrete sector believes that it has a significant role to play in reducing the carbon footprint of both the construction industry and of our built environment.

A number of key targets are set by the Strategy.

These include improvements the procurement and design process, increased innovation and investment in people and a reduction in the red tape burdens affecting the construction process.

In particular, it calls for the construction industry to help the Government reach an overall target of reducing total UK CO2 emission by at least 60% on 1990 levels by 2050 and by at least 26% by 2020.

It also calls for a reduction of 50% by 2012 of construction, demolition and excavation waste to landfill compared to 2008.

Furthermore, the built-environment needs to be fully able to meet the demands of climate change, to ensure conservation and enhancement of biodiversity and use materials that have the least environmental and social impacts as is feasible both socially and economically.

The operational energy of the buildings far outweighs the embodied energy of the materials used to build them.

Some 90% of the total energy used in buildings for heating, cooling and lighting.

"It is here that concrete comes into its own", said Cox: "By utilising concrete's high thermal mass, designers have the opportunity to significantly reduce the operational energy of a building".

He continued: "Concrete's robustness and long-term performance also meets the Strategy's call for buildings that can work with the impacts of a changing climate.

Concrete offers the thermal mass to counteract higher summer temperatures and the flood resilience to limit the impact of flooding".

Aggregates, including sand, gravel and crushed rock account for some 80% of a typical concrete mix.

Here, the concrete industry is actively pursuing a policy of recycling old concrete in order to reduce the use of these natural resources.

Concrete is 100% recyclable and concrete from a demolished building or infrastructure can be crushed and reused as aggregate for new construction.

"Some construction companies even now are reporting a recycling rate of 70 to 90% of crushed concrete from their waste streams returning as aggregate", said Cox.

In addition to recycled and secondary aggregates, the steel used in UK manufactured reinforcement uses 100% recycled UK scrap metal rather than raw materials imported from thousands of miles away.

"The fact that the UK in almost completely self-sufficient in the materials needed for concrete is a key element of locally-sourced sustainability that supports the local economy.

This supports the holistic sustainable vision of the Strategy that is looking beyond the short-term CO2 claims of other construction materials for a total, long-term sustainable solution", said Cox: "We are looking forward to working with Government to meet the challenges ahead and to realise the objectives that it has set".

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