Sustainable Construction
Objective
Deliver low carbon, resource efficient, whole life solutions
Goals
Collaborate across our value chain to promote sustainable construction
Provide industry leading guidance and solutions that optimise whole life performance
Innovate low carbon, sustainable products, services and solutions
“We’re proud to be at the forefront of innovation in the industry, meeting our customers’ needs for sustainable solutions and accelerating progress towards a net zero built environment.”
Andrew Rowley, National Commercial Director at Tarmac
The products, services, and tools we provide help our customers design and build more sustainably, especially when we engage with them as early as possible in advance of a project commencing. We are committed to delivering value to our clients through the application of our four ‘ins’ solutions model, to help them take a whole life cycle approach to meeting the challenge of creating a more sustainable built environment.
Highlights
Our approach to solutions
To help customers create a more sustainable built environment, we focus our approach across four areas:
In built
We are continuously improving the sustainable performance of both our business and our products. These include ensuring our raw materials are responsibly sourced, protecting the environment and enhancing biodiversity through excellent site stewardship, reducing carbon, water and waste, increasing recycled contents and improving transport efficiency.
In construction
Our solutions can make a significant contribution to improving the sustainability of the construction process, for example making it safer, quicker, requiring less material, generating less waste or requiring less equipment.
In use
This vitally important area is about how our products can improve sustainability during the in-use phase of a building or asset. Solutions include enhancing durability, reducing maintenance, using the thermal mass benefits of concrete to deliver substantial energy and carbon saving over its life or developing permeable paving solutions for use in Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems.
We also develop solutions for the end of life phase and use the concept of a circular economy to move away from the traditional “take-make-dispose” model to one where building components are kept in valuable use.
In support
The information, services and tools we provide can have a significant benefit in helping customers design and build more sustainably. Some examples of new services we have launched include product carbon footprints, data for Building Information Modelling (BIM) product carbon footprints and sustainable construction solution guides.
Low Carbon Concrete Collaboration
In a pioneering project, Tarmac partnered with Hartlepool Borough Council and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council in autumn 2023 to deliver the lowest carbon roads ever to be resurfaced in the UK.
Together with international industry partners, we combined an extensive range of low carbon materials, techniques, and plant equipment for the first time to resurface carriageway sections in Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees. The project delivered a reduction in carbon emissions of up to 80% compared to traditional methods and has helped to create a new blueprint for how roads are maintained in the UK.
In a UK first, Tarmac worked with BAM and the UK’s Environment Agency to successfully trial the use of two low carbon concrete mixes in permanent works at the Hexham Flood Alleviation Scheme in Northeast England. A duo of ultra-low carbon concretes, developed by Tarmac to new specifications and compressive strength class C32/40, now form the base and walls of a new flood defence structure designed to protect the town and mitigate against flood damage.
Leading Change to Warm Mix Asphalt
For years, we have been offering warm mix asphalt to our customers to enable them to make valuable carbon savings and greater efficiencies in road laying projects. In 2022 we led the industry to make this the default option. We did this to ensure that as a business, we deliver more sustainable and cost-efficient solutions to help meet our target to be net zero before 2050, as well as making progress towards our goal to cut CO2 by 30 percent (from 2021 levels). The switch from hot mix asphalts also enables our customers to make more sustainable choices.
Since warm mix asphalt is produced at lower temperatures, less energy is used in its manufacture and therefore fewer emissions are generated. Warm mix provides the same excellent performance and durability as conventional hot mix asphalt, while offering significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions of up to 15% and typically around 8-10%.
Other advantages of using warm mix asphalt include the significant public health benefits resulting from cleaner air, and the cost and time savings that can be realised by customers. Warm mix asphalt is quick and easy to lay and requires less cooling time between courses, increasing the amount of material that can be laid in a standard shift. It also reaches trafficking temperature sooner than hot mix asphalt – this allows roads to be re-opened sooner, reduces vehicle emissions arising from lower vehicle speeds or stationary traffic at roadworks, and improves fuel efficiency for drivers.
Over
tonnes of warm mix asphalt produced in 2023
Porous Asphalts
In March, we relaunched our porous asphalt ranges which have been improved to meet the future needs of our customers. We made these changes in response to the growing concern over flood risk management resulting from:
- Expanded urban and commercial development
- The under-capacity of our drainage systems and
- Increased weather variability.
These factors, twinned with the recent announcement on the imminent implementation of Schedule 3 of the Floods and Water Management Act 2010, will have significant implications for many of our customers.
It means that all projects larger than 100m²/more than one property will need to incorporate a SuDS (sustainable drainage systems) -based drainage scheme and gain approval before construction can commence. There is likely to be more emphasis on amenity, biodiversity and water quality of the drainage system rather than just the quantity of water from a site.
In readiness for the legislation change, we have simplified and improved our range of porous asphalts, with new product names which are not specific to a single use as well as improving our designs. These changes open our range up to wider applications.
Our porous pavements improve the quality of road and hard standing water runoff. Where planning conditions specify a SuDS solution for driveways, car parks or access roads, our UltiPorous and UltiSuDS can provide the solutions.
Innovative Construction Solutions
3D Printed Concrete
In 2023, Tarmac teamed up with Finnish technology company Hyperion Robotics to bring structural 3D-printed concrete to the UK. In partnership with fully integrated design and build company Mott MacDonald Bentley (MMB) and Yorkshire Water, the innovation was brought to life in a 3D-printed concrete design to replace standard applications for a major project at Yorkshire Water’s largest sewage treatment works in Esholt, near Leeds.
Digital Concrete Testing
Working with Tarmac and other partners, a successful trial of a ground-breaking digital measuring system for concrete has led to a roll-out across multiple HS2 sites – cutting carbon and driving efficiencies on the construction project.
VERIFI® is a pioneering technology that enables real-time monitoring, measurement, and management of fresh concrete properties during transportation. One of the key benefits of the system is the elimination of concrete waste which would have been produced from manual sampling and testing. When the solution is rolled out across Balfour Beatty Vinci’s section of the HS2 route, this could result in a reduction of up to 1,500 tonnes of carbon.
CEVO Launch
In late 2023, Tarmac launched its new CEVO brand, which includes a simplified system for rating the carbon footprint performance of the company’s concrete products. The new brand forms part of our efforts to make it easier for Tarmac customers to make informed decisions and procure lower carbon concrete mixes and solutions.
CEVO is our commitment to supplying concretes that offer clear carbon savings and easy-to-understand performance grading, based on the amount of carbon taken out of the design using cementitious replacements, limestone fillers, or an alkali-activated solution.
We have aligned our low carbon concrete supply to the ICE Green Construction Board Low Carbon Concrete Route map benchmark. This means complete transparency in achieving carbon reductions that are aligned to industry standards with no offsetting.
As part of our CEVO launch, we also unveiled a new carbon calculator, which provides customers with access to concrete carbon footprint data at the click of a button. The tool has been created using Tarmac data benchmarked against the Green Construction Board standard and calculated in accordance with PAS 2050 methodology. It makes it easier to compare different products and identify lower carbon alternatives from the range of concretes in use across the market.
Carbon Footprints
Understanding the embodied carbon of products is the first step in the journey towards understanding the whole life emissions of a project. For all our products, we can provide product-specific carbon footprint information. Our carbon calculator has been created in accordance with the methodologies set out in PAS 2050:2011 ‘Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services and the Asphalt Pavement Embodied Carbon Tool (asPECT v4.2).
Calculating the carbon footprint for a product not only provides a clear understanding of the products that are being used, but also allows for carbon to be managed in the supply chain. It also enables customers to compare alternative products and services, actively seek lower carbon alternatives, and understand the impact of using recycled and secondary materials.
Tarmac is committed to helping our clients meet their decarbonisation objectives by managing and reducing the carbon footprint of our operations and products. We are increasingly delivering low carbon materials, responding to carbon-related enquiries, and supporting customers to select the lowest carbon option for their projects and achieve their carbon targets.
In 2023, we delivered 4,739 carbon footprints. This is over double the number of carbon footprints we delivered in 2022, showing the increase in demand from customers to understand how our products support their decarbonisation journey. We want to use our product footprints to help both existing and new customers select the lowest carbon options.
Over
carbon footprints delivered
Looking forward
As a leading supplier of sustainable construction materials, we know we have a key role in the creation of a sustainable built environment. In 2024, we will continue to collaborate across the value chain to promote sustainable construction, provide industry-leading guidance and deliver innovative projects. We will help our customers and clients understand how to use our products to build more sustainably through local and national events, such as our NextGen and Supplier Sustainability Week events.
Following the launch of CEVO our new low carbon concrete brand we are excited to launch CEVO digital, which uses wireless sensors to monitor concrete temperature and strength to cur carbon and optimise build programmes. In 2024, we expect to start replacing CEM I 52,5N (PC) volumes, with CEM II A-LL 52,5N (PLC). This is a UKCA-marked cement, with limestone filler already built in, which can be used under the new BS 8500 standards. The expectation is that CEM II A-LL will have equivalent performance, so can be a permanent carbon-cutting replacement.
