Abstract

Only in the last three decades, cement and plastic production has grown 2.5-fold, glass 2 and steel 1.5-fold (Cullen J.M., Drewniok M.P. et al. 2020). In 2022, the global building sector accounted for 34% of energy demand and 37% of total energy related CO2 emissions, reaching nearly 10 Gt CO2 (Hamilton, Kennard et al. 2024). More than a quarter were related to production of cement, steel, aluminium, bricks and glass (embodied carbon). It is predicted that global building stock should almost double by 2050 to meet population growth needs (GABC and IEA 2017 ). In the UK context, the built environment already accounts for nearly 30% of the UK’s total territorial GHG emissions (Green, Jonca et al. 2021), with the main materials used in construction accounting for up to 6% (Drewniok, Azevedo et al. 2023). As demand for construction is expected to increase (residential, commercial, non-emitting carbon infrastructure), we expect the use of materials to increase.

Emissions reduction techniques during manufacture (e.g. using alternative fuels, increase resource efficiency in production) can only slightly reduce rather than entirely eliminate the emissions related to construction materials. Moving to the most materially and carbon efficient technology options for buildings can bring further savings (Drewniok, Azevedo et al. 2023) with the largest savings occurring in structural efficiency (Dunant, Drewniok et al. 2021). Nevertheless, this will not allow to reach net-zero carbon by 2050. It is therefore crucial to minimise the overall flow of materials in the UK construction – dematerialisation (Drewniok, Azevedo et al. 2023).

In the presentation we will try to analyse the extent to which dematerialisation should be implemented in the UK construction industry to minimise the emissions from UK construction.