LCCG Market Benchmark
Following the publication of the LCCG's first industry benchmark in the Low Carbon Concrete Routemap, it was recommended that the benchmark be updated annually, with a growing data set, in order to improve the accuracy of how it represents concrete usage in the UK. Over the last 12 months, a sub-group of the LCCG, led by Bruce Martin (Expedition Engineering), has been gathering a significantly broader data set of UK concrete embodied carbon to develop the LCCG Market Benchmark 2023.
The Low Carbon Concrete Benchmark summarises the distribution of the embodied carbon of normal weight concrete recently produced in the UK. The Benchmark covers LCA stages A1 to A3 (“cradle to batching plant gate”, or “cradle to precasting mould”).
The Benchmark is updated periodically to reflect developments in the UK market and is prepared by the Low Carbon Concrete Group. The Benchmark was first published in the Low Carbon Concrete Routemap published by the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Green Construction board in April 2022.
This 2023 update of the Benchmark is based primarily on embodied carbon data for normal weight readymix concrete produced in the UK by MPA members in 2022. Additional data received from industry has been used for strength classes above C50/60 and to inform the lower boundary of the embodied carbon of concretes recently produced in the UK, this includes data on AACM concretes. Data received from industry has also been used to estimate the standard deviation of the embodied carbon for all strength classes.
The LCCG Market Benchmark is a tool to assess the embodied carbon of concrete. The tool must be used in the context of reducing overall project and global GHG emissions. Sometimes a concrete with higher embodied carbon used more efficiently may result in lower project and / or global GHG emissions.
In addition to the benchmark data and ratings, this year's update also includes further information and analysis on the following:
Workings underlying the 2023 update to the LCCG Market Benchmark
Variations in embodied carbon of concrete by cement type
Regional variation in the embodied carbon of concrete
Embodied carbon of concrete used in different element types
Expected near term changed in the embodied carbon of concrete produced in the UK
MB_LCCBenchmark_Sept23.pdfBenchmark Data
The data for the benchmark, including a tool to visualise your own data alongside the benchmark, is available below.
Additionally, the LCCG are accepting data for further updates to the Market Benchmark, through the below interactive Benchmark Data Collector. We greatly appreciate all contributions of data for future benchmarks.