A pilot scheme part-funded by the Ministry of Justice has managed to cut the embodied carbon emissions in precast structural concrete by 40%.
The Decarbonising Precast Concrete (DPC) project has been backed by the UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund and brought together design-for-manufacture expert Akerlof, materials manufacturer Forterra and façade construction specialist PCE, along with 30 other expert contributors. The project involved examining every decision in the traditional method of building with precast materials through the lens of carbon and developing a new, whole-process approach.
The DPC team reduced the emissions from the baseline level (as measured by the ICE database) by conducting an operational activity mapping exercise to create detailed measurements of all partners’ activities.