In an era where sustainability is paramount, the construction industry is continually evolving to reduce its environmental impact.
Elaine Toogood, Director of Architecture & Sustainable Design at The Concrete Centre, is at the forefront of these efforts. Providing architectural advice and technical guidance, Toogood specialises in the specification, design, and use of concrete for sustainable construction.
She is also the joint chair for the UK concrete industry’s circular economy task group and serves as a special advisor to UK Concrete.
As a member of the Offsite Construction Week Advisory Board, Toogood brings her extensive expertise to the Offsite Expo, where she will be speaking at the Circularity and Construction Methods for the Future masterclass.
In a recent interview, Toogood shared her insights on effective strategies to lower the carbon footprint in buildings involving concrete, highlighting the progress and innovations within the industry.
What are some effective strategies for lowering the overall carbon footprint on a building where concrete is involved?
There’s quite a few approaches that designers can take. One is to optimise precast concrete through the structure – thinking about the span and the load and the type of frame selection. Pre-stressed hollow-core planks, for example, are inherently material efficient, so that obviously brings the embodied carbon down. But there’s lots of ways that concrete can help provide a leaner solution.
One way is to expose that concrete in the final building, or you could paint it. One of the benefits of that is that you avoid additional linings, and you don’t normally need them with concrete because it usually meets fire and acoustic performance, and that surface can be really excellent, so that’s a great lean approach.
And then you could also tap into the thermal mass of the concrete, and that helps reduce the energy loads for cooling and heating, and maybe even help avoid some of the services you need for cooling. That’s going to become increasingly important for climate change.
What are builders and manufacturers doing to decarbonise precast concrete?
The Concrete Industries Decarbonisation Road Map has been around for a few years now and there’s been some excellent progress there. A lot of it focuses on the decarbonisation of cement because that’s one of the main contributors to the embodied carbon of concrete.
There’s also the greater use of renewable energy for manufacture, use of lower carbon mixes and innovations, and the precast manufacturers are really focusing and challenging on this as well.
There’s been some great progress which we report annually through the MPA.
One of the other ways that is important is providing more carbon data through the use of EPD’s. Because if you don’t measure, you can’t really reduce effectively. So it’s really important to understand exactly where that carbon is so that you can take steps to reduce it.
Collaboration is also a key part of that, especially for that early optimisation of the design solution.
What are some of the key messages for the visitors of Offsite Expo and what are your expectations from the Expo as a catalyst for collaboration within the industry?
We’re really lucky in this country, we’ve got a well-established local supply chain for precast concrete. So you can get the benefits of MMC – just in time delivery, high quality control and speed of construction.
And with concrete offsite solutions you get a lot more. It’s reliable, it’s tested, it’s a resilient offsite solution and those are all important considerations.
It’s important to recognise that we’ve got a good established industry and it’s an important part of the solutions that are on offer.
I would urge designers, engineers and importantly clients to come along to Offsite Expo.
There’s loads going on this year, so I would really urge people to get engaged and to come and meet some of the precast manufacturers. Come and meet us at the MPA Precast Stand and check out the shortlisted competition entries.
Be inspired by what’s possible using concrete solutions and digital manufacturing and digital construction techniques. And of course, find out more about the benefits of concrete MMC.
By meeting and talking and discussing and getting inspired, that’s how we can all collaborate together.
