The I&L Sustainability Collaboration of industrial & logistics (I&L) developer sustainability leaders (ILSC) collaborated with MECLA to deliver a Nutcracker workshop on reducing embodied carbon in warehouse concrete on 23 July 2024. 

Approximately 11% of global emissions are associated with upfront embodied carbon in construction. This is the carbon from the extraction, manufacturing and transport of materials, and construction processes. Australian I&L developers are setting ambitious emissions reduction targets, including upfront embodied carbon. They are also moving to using Green Star Buildings, which requires strong reductions. Progress is being made, but many challenges remain, particularly with performance risk and cost.

The MECLA Warehouse Concrete Carbon Nutcracker asked a crucial question: How can we accelerate reductions in the upfront embodied carbon of concrete in warehouses to enable overall building reductions beyond 20 percent?

The event brought together roughly 80 I&L developers, contractors, ESD consultants, structural engineers, concrete specialists, concrete suppliers and placers, and others in the I&L concrete supply chain to examine what is working well, what the challenges across the supply chain are, and to identify solutions. Thank you to everyone who was involved!

A summary of the event and outcomes can be accessed below: