Construction World October 2022

Puttingourhouseinorder Despite all its advantages over in situ, precast concrete manufacturing is not perfect, and we are working to lower our own carbon footprint. To that end, at Elematic we have recently met the requirements for ISO14001, which is helping us improve our environmental performance through more efficient use of resources and reduction of waste – and lowering our own CO 2 . We appreciate that most of the CO 2 created from our precast technology comes from its in-use phase with customers. To that end we offer a range of services to help them measure their carbon footprints and create action plans to reduce them. Measuring a plant’s carbon footprint is the first step to low-carbon element production. To determine the carbon footprint of a construction product, the carbon footprint of the production process must be known: including the emission effects of the energy and raw materials used, and the footprint of manufactured concrete elements. Our reports help identify the most effective ways to reduce precast factories’ carbon emissions. In our day-to-day work it’s our task to make the production of precast elements as efficient as possible – reducing material, energy, time – and CO 2 . At the heart of this modernization is process automation and Plant Control, a suite of software that combines precast process optimization with the latest IT. We come to Bauma with a whole range of innovations to help our clients do more with less. Looking ahead, Elematic is also helping to fund the LOIKKA project, a joint venture aiming to sharply

reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the concrete industry. As part of the project, we will test low-carbon precast concrete elements. The transition to low-carbon concretes poses a productivity challenge for precast concrete plants: how to maintain output when low-carbon concretes dry more slowly than conventional concretes (up to double the time). Elematic's customers have hundreds of factories around the world. If we can help them make the transition to low-carbon concrete, it will have a big impact on the climate. Protectingtheclimateneedsahigherpriority So, if precast concrete production is so good in so many respects, why isn’t it more popular? Sadly, the answer is that contractors mostly win tenders by being the cheapest, not the most environmental. Added to that, no one in the construction value chain is responsible for a building’s CO 2 output. Among major economies only China is incentivizing the use of precast construction techniques. This is the solution – only through new legislation will the environmentally damaging cycle of opting for in situ concrete be broken. The irony is that in situ concrete’s great claim-to fame – being the cheapest option – isn’t really true. When you consider the shorter build times, lower workforce requirements and lower waste, precast is easily comparable with in situ construction. With the climate continuing to heat up, the technology to radically cut CO 2 output from concrete construction exists today. 

25 CONSTRUCTION WORLD OCTOBER 2022