Futurebuild 2026
The Concrete Centre is championing concrete innovation at Futurebuild 2026 with both a Concrete Futures exhibition and a plethora of latest best practice guidance and advice. Stand number J44.
The Concrete Futures exhibition, which forms part of Futurebuild’s Innovation Trail will include examples of innovative concrete illustrating the manufacture, design, reuse and recycling of concrete to reduce carbon and support a more circular economy.
Speaking sessions within Futurebuild programme
The Concrete Centre, and its sister organisations MPA Precast and MPA Masonry are delighted to curate speaking sessions within the Futurebuild programme.
Concrete Futures: Implementing Innovation
Date: 12 May 2026
Time: 14:45 - 15:00
Location: Energy Stage
Speaker: Andrea Charlson - Senior Sustainability Specialist & Circular Economy Lead - The Concrete Centre
The future of concrete is not just about new ideas, but about making them work. This session provides a rapid overview of emerging low-carbon concrete solutions and focuses on how they are being adopted in practice. Through standards development, specification guidance and real-world pilots, it demonstrates how innovation is being translated into safe, compliant and scalable solutions for today’s projects.
______________________________________________________________________________
Beyond roadmaps: taking concrete action to decarbonise
Date: 13 May 2026
Time: 11:15 - 12:00
Location: Buildings and Materials Stage
Following the recent progress report on the MPA's UK Concrete and Cement Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero, this session explores ongoing efforts to advance low-carbon concrete and cement through improved manufacturing, specification, and procurement practices.
Chair: Elaine Toogood - Senior Director, Concrete, Mineral Products Association
Concrete action for decarbonisation: Rob Moorcroft - Energy and Climate Change Technical Advisor, Mineral Products Association
Rob will provide an update on the action taken and progress achieved for the UK Concrete and Cement Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero Carbon including the latest on fuel switching, carbon capture use and storage and other industry innovation development projects.
Carbon data, benchmarking and EPDs for concrete: Dr Rachel Capon - Sustainable Programme Manager, UK Concrete
Using the most appropriate and highest quality carbon data at different stages in the design process is essential for making informed decisions and progress. This presentation will share insights into the latest data and resources available for concrete.
Tools to enable lower carbon specification and design of concrete: Liam Forde - Manager – Infrastructure, Built Environment & Sustainability
This presentation will provide an overview of how recent updates to the freely accessible online tools: TCC-BS8500, Concept, and the National Structural Concrete Specification, help guide low-carbon decision-making throughout the specification and design process.
______________________________________________________________________________
From MMC to Masonry: navigating detailing and specification for low carbon, future-proofed housing
Date: 13 May 2026
Time: 12:15 - 13:00
Location: Buildings and Materials Stage
The construction of new homes has been put at the heart of boosting economic growth and tackling housing need in the UK. How do we ensure these new homes are designed to reduce carbon emissions as well as meet the comfort, longevity and performance necessary for the demands of a changing climate? This session will share some of the new guidance, research, tools and data to help as well as recent case studies.
Chair: Elaine Toogood - Senior Director, Concrete, Mineral Products Association
Lower carbon concrete MMC through design: Emily Halliwell - Senior Structural Engineer, The Concrete Centre
Emily will introduce key themes from the new industry guidance for reducing embodied carbon through design and detailing of precast concrete.
Whole Life Carbon in Housing: Measurement and Reduction: Hafiz Elhag - Sustainability Manager (concrete products), Mineral Products Association
This presentation outlines recent advances in whole life carbon measurement for housing including tools, guidance and data conventions to improve consistency. It also provides insights into design and specifications strategies to reduce carbon using masonry.
It’s all in the detail – thermal bridging design for masonry and precast: Colin Davis - Director, Studio Partington
This talk will provide an update on the expanding suite of pre-assessed and certified details provided by the industry to facilitate assessment and detailing of thermal junctions in the construction of masonry and precast homes to meet the Future Homes Standard.