The future of construction? A new materials path to net zero is emerging

Building costs in the UK are forecast to increase by 15% over the next five years, with tender prices rising by 19% over the same period, according to a recent BCIS report. As the construction industry faces this financial pressure, it is also confronted with the urgent need to decarbonise, driven by the UK government’s commitment to reaching net zero by 2050. This dual challenge of rising costs and strict climate goals means the industry must innovate – and it is looking to researchers and start-ups to help it make a difference.

Advanced materials such as low-carbon cement and composites are at the forefront of these innovations, offering sustainable solutions while tackling these challenges – but what are the priorities? The government’s upcoming Future Homes Standard and policies like the Heat and Buildings Strategy push for substantial reductions in both operational and embodied carbon emissions. Generated by the production and transport of materials, these account for a significant portion of the construction industry’s carbon footprint. Reducing these emissions is critical if the sector is to align with the UK’s Climate Change Act targets.

This, according to David Knowles, CEO of the Henry Royce Institute, is where innovation and materials start-ups come in – but there needs to be a focus on what is needed now and not just on the materials and products of the longer-term future.

As Knowles tells BI Foresight, “The materials innovations which are coming through and will have the biggest impact are on the high-volume materials. The National Materials Innovation Strategy is focusing on high-volume materials, foundation industries like pulp and paper, petrochemicals, cement, glass, steel, and ceramics, which are energy-intensive and large emitters.”

Cement, in particular, is responsible for a substantial amount of global CO₂ emissions, contributing around 8% globally. In the UK its impact, while lower at 1.5%, remains significant.

New lower-clinker, multi-component cements incorporating limestone powder and calcined clays offer promising solutions to reduce embodied carbon, at least according to Charles Rothnie, senior engineer at Perega, who says these materials are already recognised by standards like BS 8500.

“We’ve already seen this shift recognised, but there’s room to go even further,” says Rothnie.

He believes that research supports the use of even higher percentages of these components, though regulations and codes have yet to fully catch up.

“There are ways to dramatically reduce CO₂ production,” adds Knowles. “There are clays that we can process at much lower temperatures and use as backfillers into cements, with much lower energy consumption and CO₂ production.”

Overcoming the insurance barrier

Despite the advancements, one of the largest barriers to adopting new materials is insurance.

“Although architects and designers would like to use lower CO₂ materials, insurance companies won’t insure those new materials,” says Knowles.

This reluctance stems from the risk associated with untested or unfamiliar materials, limiting their use on large-scale projects. Knowles refers to how new materials in construction have got into the psyche of insurers.

“There’s a lot of negativity that’s come through into the built environment, some of it completely understandable,” says Knowles. “You’ve got RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) and other issues, like the Grenfell disaster, where they’ve introduced new materials, and they’ve had some terrible, terrible consequences. And so one of the challenges that we’re encountering, which is a really interesting one, is that although the architects and the designers would like to make their buildings more green, and they would like to use lower CO₂ materials, insurance companies won’t insure those new materials.”

Government intervention could help overcome this challenge. Knowles advocates for clearer government direction and a need to incentivise.

“Clear messaging at a government level will help enormously in giving direction to the industry and the investment community,” he says.

The promise of composites

Composites represent another area of opportunity for reducing the carbon footprint of construction projects.

Laurent Morel, segment owner for building and infrastructure at Exel Composites, explains that “lightweight composites can provide great structural strength while reducing weight.”

For example, fibreglass rebar is four times lighter than steel rebar of the same size but offers 20% greater tensile strength. This weight reduction contributes to easier transportation, lower embodied carbon, and enhanced durability.

Beyond strength, composites also offer advantages in energy efficiency. Morel highlights the thermal properties of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP), which has significantly lower thermal conductivity compared to materials like aluminium, making it ideal for improving building insulation. This helps to cut operational carbon emissions, particularly in new homes aiming to meet the Future Homes Standard.

However, regulatory challenges persist. Morel notes that “a lack of national and international regulatory codes” has slowed the rise of composites in mainstream construction. Although the CEN Eurocodes now provide a framework for composite use, the industry remains wedded to traditional materials. Overcoming these ingrained practices requires both regulatory clarity and widespread education within the construction industry.

The dichotomy is that while the Future Homes Standard, in particular, mandates a 75% reduction in carbon emissions for new homes by 2025, and the Heat and Buildings Strategy aims to upgrade existing homes to EPC Band C by 2035, these policies require the construction industry to not only improve the energy efficiency of buildings but also focus on reducing the embodied carbon of materials.

That means that innovations in foundation materials have to play a big role – but time is of the essence. As Knowles warns, “the sorts of innovations we’re talking about haven’t got that 20-year time frame. We’ve got to do that in five years.”

It’s not just about scaling the use of low-carbon materials either, and this impacts the supply chain and each and every other industry that is connected and relies upon another for raw materials. Rothnie points out, for example, that sourcing low-carbon materials such as calcined clay is not easy.

“There’s no domestic supply of calcined clay in the UK, meaning it must be imported,” he says, highlighting the need for government and industry to address core supply chain issues. 

The industry must also learn to embrace technology-driven efficiencies to optimise material use and reduce waste. However, as Knowles points out, efficiencies such as “big data and machine learning can help us optimise formulations in materials like concrete, but they’re followers, not leaders.”

The steel challenge

This is certainly a fast-moving space and ripe for opportunity, says Knowles, who believes data insights will play an increasingly important role in finding solutions for some of the industry’s most pressing problems.

He cites steel as a key challenge that has already received a lot of attention from materials innovators. Steel remains a crucial material in construction, but its production is energy-intensive, contributing significantly to global carbon emissions. Knowles points out that there are both challenges and opportunities in decarbonising steel. He talks about the shift towards electric arc furnaces (EAFs) in the UK, which is helping to reduce emissions by enabling the recycling of scrap steel, closing the loop on material use.

However, one of the major challenges is scaling these technologies. Traditional steel production is deeply ingrained in global supply chains, making it difficult to transition rapidly to cleaner processes. Knowles also emphasises that while EAFs are promising, they still require considerable energy inputs, which must be sourced from renewable energy for the full decarbonisation of steel production to take effect. The development of hydrogen-based steel production also offers future opportunities, though it’s still in its early stages and requires significant investment and infrastructure development to become mainstream.

And then there are technologies such as graphene. Still in early adoption, graphene-enhanced materials are being researched for their potential in improving the strength and flexibility of construction components. It’s an exciting material with a seemingly transformational future, but for the time being at least we have to go back to Knowles’ initial point. The construction industry urgently needs new solutions for the foundation materials and to come up with solutions that address legacy installations, such as corroding steel within old concrete structures.

“New materials like composite structures could have huge benefits but you have to think about them all in context,” says Knowles. “We’re not going to suddenly change the way we build those structures. We have to think about how we can take quite simple steps which will make a difference and will  stimulate innovation, but also to get us some runs on the board for net zero. I mean, we talk about 2050 all the time, and it’s not like we’re suddenly going to get to 2050 and suddenly we’re going to be zero CO₂. There’s a lot of knowledge that we have right now which we could apply in an innovative way, and make some large gains over the next five years or so. That’s the message that’s coming through from the industry. Pragmatism.”