Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Ibstock, the manufacturer of clay and concrete building products, and Earth Friendly Concrete (EFC) has entered into a new partnership to create ultra-low carbon concrete products.
The partnership will see EFC’s ultra-low carbon, zero cement technology integrated into Ibstock’s diverse portfolio of high-performance building products for the construction industry, including its range of products for the rail, infrastructure and UK housing markets. The technology has performance advantages over Ordinary Portland Cement-based products including improved durability, lower shrinkage, higher flexural tensile strength and increased fire resistance and is the only zero-cement concrete technology that has been proven at scale on real life commercial projects across the world.
This new partnership supports Ibstock’s ambitious ESG targets. Having recently launched its ESG Strategy to 2030, Ibstock is committed to ‘Manufacture Materials for Life’ and improving the environmental performance of its products. Its milestone 2030 target is to achieve 20% of sales turnover revenue from new and sustainable products.
Darren Waters, Chief Operating Officer at Ibstock, said: “As a business at the heart of building, our ambition is to be the most sustainable manufacturer of concrete products in the UK. Collaborating with EFC marks a significant step in achieving this goal as we collaborate and innovate to manufacture materials for life.
“More than ever, customers are looking for products which offer great functionality but also have robust sustainability credentials. In 2020, the Ibstock concrete division invested in a new concrete laboratory at its site in Anstone, Sheffield, to facilitate the development of sustainable concrete that features reduced embodied carbon and therefore has a lower environmental impact. At this advanced facility, we are already developing and testing innovative new concrete mixhat incorporate EFC to ensure we achieve our own sustainability goals, as well as contribute to those of the wider sector, without compromising on quality or performance.”
Since it was launched in 2020, EFC has saved around 2,000 tonnes of CO₂ across construction projects. It has been used in several high-profile projects including High Speed 2 (HS2) and Silvertown Tunnel.
