Earlier in March, maber’s Tim Boxford, Nick Greenwood and Ruza Sirmanova attended Futurebuild 2025 at the Excel in London and the takeaways from the event were fascinating.
Across the three days, five seminar stages and 400 innovators, solutions and knowledge were shared to help drive sustainability in the construction industry and reach net zero.
Duncan Baker-Brown’s talk on teaching a more climate sensitive approach to architecture at the University of Brighton was enlightening and essential.
He detailed insights on circular economy and reassembling over demolishing to stop waste, such as resource mapping, urban-mining and using local sites. All of which can be found in his book, ‘The Re-use Atlas’.
On the Materials Impact Stage, one of the highlights was the presentation on the use of natural stone.
Findings showed that the stone has a lower environmental impact than brick and provides 137% more carbon saving than precast concrete.
There was an opportunity to catch up with Firth Steels and SSAB Zero for a discussion on the uses of rapeseed oil.
We were first introduced to the SSAB Zero product whilst working on the Beckingham Cadet Training Centre in Lincolnshire. The cadet centre is a small-scale but environmentally ambitious project which uses natural materials and innovative methods of construction. For example, the use of recycled car and lorry tyre foundations to minimise environmental impact.
Firth supplied the steel roof panels which were manufactured by SSAB in Sweden using recycled steel, electric furnaces and rapeseed coating to reduce their environmental impact.
This is the first time a UK project has used a SSAB product, marking an exciting milestone for maber and the Swedish company. The inclusion of the SSAB Zero roof panels has created a sleek finish to the training centre, whilst still being environmentally-conscious.
Etex also took a spot at Futurebuild with John Sinfield presenting on the intricacies of UK supply chains and the works of the company. The 200 million euros expansion of their Bristol manufacturing facility, and the longest building maber has ever designed, has just officially opened.
The new site, which is part of Etex’s Road to Sustainability 2030 ambitions, is a zero waste to landfill plant and their most efficient plasterboard production line in Europe. Read more about the project here
At maber, sustainability is paramount and there is a commitment to adopting initiatives that safeguard life on the planet and mitigate the effects of climate change, whilst working towards net zero and a circular economy.
Future Build provided lots of inspiration and ideas on sustainability, giving the opportunity to network with likeminded individuals across the construction industry.