University of Exeter: Crackdown On Use of Unsustainable Concrete In Campus Construction.
University of Exeter: Crackdown On Use of Unsustainable Concrete In Campus Construction.
The Issue
Concrete is the second most used building material in the world and with rapid urbanization in countries such as India and China its usage is only going to increase. The industry generates 8% of the world’s total Carbon Dioxide emissions, that is more than the total emissions of the global aircraft industry! Considering most news media attention focuses on aircraft pollution (and rightly so) it is also time we shine a light on the climate harm concrete production causes.
This is partly because the decarbonizing of limestone (crucial in the making of concrete) produces 60% of the industry's emissions. For every tonne of cement the concrete business creates, it simultaneously generates 1 tonne of CO2 as wastage. This situation cannot continue any longer, we cannot stand by idly endangering our planet in this way, so we propose action
To bring the concrete sector in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, annual greenhouse emissions need to fall by at least 16% by 2030. One of the ways to do this is to make sustainable concrete the industry standard in the UK. Sustainable concrete means that up to 70% Portland Cement is removed, therefore reducing embedded CO2 by 850kg per tonne, that is an 85% decrease in emissions!. So why then does the University continue to support the use climate damaging concrete?
The University of Exeter has recently announced a climate emergency on the 20th of May 2019, declaring that “as a university we have committed to reduce carbon emissions, established a sustainability strategy and developed an ethical investment policy”. Yet their continued use of unsustainable building materials is therefore contradictory to the aims and ethos of the University.
A sustainable structural transformation requires brave investment in new climate saving materials. We demand that further to their aim to save 4,600 tonnes of CO2 over future construction projects, the university should pledge to use only sustainable concrete going forwards. By signing this petition, you will be able to put pressure on the University to include sustainable concrete materials as part of any future Carbon Action plan.
248
The Issue
Concrete is the second most used building material in the world and with rapid urbanization in countries such as India and China its usage is only going to increase. The industry generates 8% of the world’s total Carbon Dioxide emissions, that is more than the total emissions of the global aircraft industry! Considering most news media attention focuses on aircraft pollution (and rightly so) it is also time we shine a light on the climate harm concrete production causes.
This is partly because the decarbonizing of limestone (crucial in the making of concrete) produces 60% of the industry's emissions. For every tonne of cement the concrete business creates, it simultaneously generates 1 tonne of CO2 as wastage. This situation cannot continue any longer, we cannot stand by idly endangering our planet in this way, so we propose action
To bring the concrete sector in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, annual greenhouse emissions need to fall by at least 16% by 2030. One of the ways to do this is to make sustainable concrete the industry standard in the UK. Sustainable concrete means that up to 70% Portland Cement is removed, therefore reducing embedded CO2 by 850kg per tonne, that is an 85% decrease in emissions!. So why then does the University continue to support the use climate damaging concrete?
The University of Exeter has recently announced a climate emergency on the 20th of May 2019, declaring that “as a university we have committed to reduce carbon emissions, established a sustainability strategy and developed an ethical investment policy”. Yet their continued use of unsustainable building materials is therefore contradictory to the aims and ethos of the University.
A sustainable structural transformation requires brave investment in new climate saving materials. We demand that further to their aim to save 4,600 tonnes of CO2 over future construction projects, the university should pledge to use only sustainable concrete going forwards. By signing this petition, you will be able to put pressure on the University to include sustainable concrete materials as part of any future Carbon Action plan.
248
The Decision Makers
Petition created on 12 June 2019