The role concrete must play in making sustainable construction a reality

Holcim UK CEO Lee Sleight explores how concrete must evolve to meet the UK's sustainable construction goals

With our climate continuing to change at an alarming rate, the UK Government has set out ambitious targets to make construction practices more sustainable for generations to come. Concrete stands as one of the most critical components of the built environment, so reducing the carbon footprint of its manufacture - and the products that ultimately go to market - is key to securing a more sustainable future. The recent announcement of additional funding for buildings and infrastructure is welcome, and an encouraging step towards enabling more sustainable concrete solutions. However, Lee Sleight, CEO of sustainable building solutions specialist Holcim UK, warns that the UK’s success in achieving its environmental goals will rely on more than addressing funding challenges alone.

Collaboration is key

The signals coming from central government about the need for more sustainable construction are highly encouraging, with a flurry of key pledges having been made in recent months. This includes the £2bn promised for boosting affordable and social housebuilding, the £4.8bn for improving roads, and the £625m package for construction skills. These announcements have also come as planning permission has been granted for National Highways to deliver the Lower Thames Crossing, the organisation’s first of its new generation of net zero focused projects using low carbon concrete and steel.

Developments such as this will help us to begin addressing some of the key challenges and barriers to making construction a more sustainable industry. All in all, the picture looks to be very positive, though we will have to wait and see whether these announcements will bring the desired stimulation of the UK economy.

Despite this, the sustainability challenges that the built environment faces cannot be solved through funding alone. A collaborative effort between central and local governments and the wider construction industry to address key issues like skills gaps, funding, and supply of materials must be prioritised to deliver for all projects into the future. By focusing too intently on short-term goals and specific challenges without addressing the endemic macro challenges of the sector, we run the risk of losing the progress we have made in developing effective policies, supply chains, and a workforce needed to deliver construction projects sustainably and at scale.

For concrete suppliers, this effectively means working to strengthen partnerships with developers, building contractors, designers, consultants, and specifiers to ensure that housebuilding, roads, and infrastructure projects – such as those that have received new funding – receive the more environmentally-friendly products that will lay the foundations for safer, sustainable places for communities across the UK.

How concrete suppliers can support the wider industry

But what exactly can concrete suppliers do to overcome the barriers to sustainability that they face? There are several key areas that they must focus on, which are detailed in our recent positioning paper – ‘Making Sustainable Construction a Reality’’.  This not only sets out how Holcim UK is responding to the key sustainability barriers, but also aims to support our industry peers in addressing these themselves.

The first of these is decarbonisation. With 42% of UK greenhouse gas emissions attributable to buildings^[1], decarbonising concrete is integral to reaching net zero, given that it is one of the most essential materials used in construction. While work has already been done in this regard – UK concrete having reduced CO² emissions by 53% since 1990^[2] – it’s clear that there is still much left to do before concrete can be considered wholly sustainable. After all, to achieve net zero,, the wholesale decarbonisation of all elements of concrete production, supply, and use will be necessary. And with growing legislative pressure on companies across Europe to demonstrate adverse environmental social impact across entire value chains – e.g., the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive – these factors make the ready availability of low-carbon concrete solutions all the more important.

Fortunately, more attention in the UK is now being paid to embodied carbon – the CO₂ emitted from producing materials and the energy used in extraction through to transportation and processing. Although no formal legislation currently exists, future enforcement is both likely and necessary, considering the nation’s legally binding net zero target. This is all encouraging, but the role that the construction industry must play in achieving decarbonisation will be significant.

Indeed, we at Holcim and other industry partners want to develop Peak Cluster, one of the world’s biggest carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS projects), which represents the only feasible means for the cement and lime industries to reach net zero.  At present, however, funding support beyond the first wave of projects remains uncertain. Without CCUS in cement, true decarbonisation can only be a mere pipe dream.

Then there’s circularity. With traditional construction methods being notoriously resource intensive, raw materials often get discarded at end of life. While the supply chain for recycling concrete is well established, and with most demolition contractors reporting that the majority of demolition waste gets recycled^[3], the construction industry as a whole continues to lack a mature circular economy. Through circular methods, concrete manufacturers can move increasingly towards designing products that are intended for refuse at the end of a building’s life cycle, and help facilitate this wider industry change.  In making this shift, smarter construction methods – such as the use of digital tools, building under controlled conditions, improving quality and process control – can begin to be realised.

Lastly, there’s community and nature. Creating spaces that align with people’s need and cultural identify can deliver more resilient, long-lasting developments that encourage social interaction and environmental stewardship. Nature, meanwhile, is also fundamental, with positive steps towards addressing challenges of native landscaping, wildlife corridors, and the design of buildings that can effectively coexist with their surroundings, already having been made. Concrete manufacturers can play a particularly crucial role in this regard, supplying the materials needed to ensure that the impact of construction on communities and the environment is kept to an absolute minimum.

The road to sustainability is within sight

At Holcim UK, we have made addressing these areas central to our strategic focus, and we hope to set an example for how sustainable construction can be made a reality in the UK.

Considering the great strides that have already been made, we as an industry are not starting out on this road from square one, but as critical deadlines edge ever closer, the time has come to redouble our efforts.

The challenge is undeniably a formidable one. However, through a greater collaborative effort between the industry and government, and a concerted effort among concrete manufacturers to deliver the durable and environmentally-friendly solutions that are needed, the road to a more sustainable future lies firmly within sight.

To read Holcim UK’s positioning paper, visit 'Making Sustainable Construction a Reality'