Construction sector views on low carbon building materials

Abstract

As is the case in a number of countries, the UK construction industry faces the challenge of expanding production whilst making ambitious greenhouse gas emission reductions. Embodied carbon constitutes a growing proportion of whole-life carbon emissions and accounts for a significant share of total UK emissions. A key mitigation strategy is increasing the use of alternative materials with lower embodied carbon. The economic, technical, practical and cultural barriers to the uptake of these alternatives are explored through a survey of construction professionals and interviews with industry leaders. Perceptions of high cost, ineffective allocation of responsibility, industry culture, and the poor availability of product and building-level carbon data and benchmarks constitute significant barriers. Opportunities to overcome these barriers include earlier engagement of professionals along the supply chain, effective use of whole-life costing, and changes to contract and tender documents. A mounting business case exists for addressing embodied carbon, but has yet to be effectively disseminated. In the meantime, the moral convictions of individual clients and practitioners have driven early progress. However, this research underscores the need for new regulatory drivers to complement changing attitudes if embodied carbon is to be established as a mainstream construction industry concern.

From Waste Management to Component Management in the Construction Industry

“…It has no effect on today's waste generation; it overlooks the materials in our existing building stock and the resource this represents [41], which instead is seen as 'waste in waiting' [42].…”

Industrial energy, materials and products: UK decarbonisation challenges and opportunities

“…This elicited a number of perceived inhibitors: high cost, ineffective allocation of responsibility, industry culture, and the poor availability of product and building-level carbon data and benchmarks [57]. Opportunities to overcome such barriers include early engagement with professionals along the supply chain during the planning phase of new buildings and infrastructure, better availability of accurate LCA data on the different material options, and the effective use of whole life costing.…”

“…The UK construction sector has annual emissions associated with the embodied energy required to produce all the materials within the region of 43-62 Mt a year [57] (over 10% of the UK's total emissions). Increasingly, strategies to reduce the energy demand of buildings and infrastructure extend beyond the operational use to include the upstream energy demand for production of materials used in their construction.…”

“…A parallel study [57] was undertaken in order to comprehend the views of experts from the construction sector on the key barriers to a range of options that would reduce its embodied emissions. This elicited a number of perceived inhibitors: high cost, ineffective allocation of responsibility, industry culture, and the poor availability of product and building-level carbon data and benchmarks [57].…”

Briefing: Embodied carbon dioxide assessment in buildings: guidance and gaps

“…Embodied greenhouse gas emissions ('embodied carbon') emissions already make up as much as 90% of whole-life GHG emissions on some projects (Sturgis and Roberts, 2010), constitute a growing share across all project types (Ibn-Mohammed et al, 2013) and are responsible for almost a quarter of annual built environment emissions (see Figure 1). These embodied carbon emissions can be addressed through a wide range of mitigation strategies (Lupíšek et al 2016;Pomponi and Moncaster, 2016), such as improvement in the efficiency of structural designs (Cullen et al, 2011;Moynihan and Allwood, 2014), the use of alternative building materials (Cabeza et al, 2013;Giesekam et al, 2014;Giesekam et al, 2016c) or the adoption of circular economy approaches that encourage increased reuse and recycling of materials, components and structures (Densley Tingley and Davison, 2011;.…”