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Carbon savings – it’s all about the timing

07 Oct 2021

For many years now, the main aim of government energy policy in the built environment has been to drive down demand; a simple strategy for cutting carbon that continues to make good sense, although with increasing wind and solar power supplying the UK, things are no longer quite so straightforward.

UK cement industry sets out roadmap to "go beyond net-zero" by 2050

21 Sep 2021

UK producers are trialling new types of cement production methods and testing low-carbon concrete recipes in a bid to eliminate carbon emissions and become a net-zero industry. The moves are part of a roadmap that identifies seven ways of decarbonising the industry.

2021 Structural Concrete Student Competition Winners Announced

19 Aug 2021

The Concrete Centre’s annual student Structural Concrete competition, in partnership with Laing O’Rourke, has been won by Ashley Andersen from the University of Surrey. The 2021 competition challenge for teams of engineering students was to design a civic centre comprising a library and council offices in a new garden town in the north west of England.

Building regulations need to address overheating in new homes

22 Jun 2021

The newly published Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk from the Climate Change Committee calls for the updating of building regulations to address overheating in new homes. To address this, a number of key actions are identified, which The Concrete Centre fully support.

How can we decarbonise concrete?

15 Jun 2021

World Environment Day on 5 June presents us all with an opportunity to evaluate our environmental footprints and the daily measures we must take as individuals, businesses and industries to decarbonise and encourage biodiversity, says Elaine Toogood.

Using 56 day concrete strengths

07 Jun 2021

Tony Jones of The Concrete Centre discusses the embodied carbon savings to be made by choice of cement types when specifying concrete at 56-day strength.

Designing low-carbon concrete basements

17 May 2021

Emily Halliwell of The Concrete Centre and The Basement Information Centre discusses the factors designers should consider to achieve low-carbon basement designs.

Sand a-plenty

12 Apr 2021

‘Are we running out of sand and construction aggregates in the UK?’ I periodically get asked this question in relation to availability for concrete, prompted I suspect by reports related to a shortages elsewhere in the world. The answer, put very succinctly, is No.

Oversimplifying the overheating issue

07 Apr 2021

Tom De Saulles, The Concrete Centre's advisor on Building Physics expresses concerns that elements of new MHCLG proposals represent a backward step on addressing overheating in new homes.

Off-site construction

06 Apr 2021

Over the past few years the Government has made the use of off-site construction techniques as one of its core objectives for the construction industry. Jenny Burridge of The Concrete Centre looks at some of these options and the benefits that can be realised by choosing concrete as the off-site construction option.