Concrete forms humanity’s very foundations. As the second most used substance on earth behind water, concrete accounts for 8% of global CO² emissions, with a staggering 0.93 kilograms of CO² produced for every kilogram of concrete. 

Concrete is made up of four key components: 

• Cement (a “binder”) 
• Aggregates (rocks, gravel, sand etc.) 
• Chemical additives (property enhancers) 
• An activator (which is almost always water) 

So what are innovators developing to overcome this problem? We can boil innovations down to three main approaches: 

1. Produce cement with less energy 
2. Use cement and/or concrete more efficiently 
3. Use something else:
   • A different cement or;
   • A different concrete altogether 

Find out about the current state of play in the UK.