It is not just carbon emissions? As I understand it, globally the rate of new build is going to peak and then decline perhaps sooner than we think, and the share of industry devoted to maintenance or replacement likely to increase very steeply. The economic role of existing legacy structures is perhaps already underappreciated locally in UK; everything from the downsides of uninsulated UK housing to happily (?) getting away without much renewal of Victorian sewers? Our largest machine, the UK power grid, seems already under strain. And will we get or need more office buildings for example?
Brilliant and informative, as ever. But it does rather make me think: 'oh no, not another area in which all the brilliantly simplistic 'solutions' aren't solutions at all!'
Key point wrt the GGBS alternative linked to in the post - we're running out and any use above what can be produced locally (about 25% replacement rate) will not reduce global CO2 emissions. Good discussion of that here at Institute of Structural Engineers:
Excellent and informative post, Ed. This type of subject isn’t necessarily very exciting to a lot of people but your exposition of the ‘under the bonnet’ stuff is a great way to counter the way we take many things in our modern world for granted. Keep up the good work.
It is not just carbon emissions? As I understand it, globally the rate of new build is going to peak and then decline perhaps sooner than we think, and the share of industry devoted to maintenance or replacement likely to increase very steeply. The economic role of existing legacy structures is perhaps already underappreciated locally in UK; everything from the downsides of uninsulated UK housing to happily (?) getting away without much renewal of Victorian sewers? Our largest machine, the UK power grid, seems already under strain. And will we get or need more office buildings for example?
Brilliant and informative, as ever. But it does rather make me think: 'oh no, not another area in which all the brilliantly simplistic 'solutions' aren't solutions at all!'
Key point wrt the GGBS alternative linked to in the post - we're running out and any use above what can be produced locally (about 25% replacement rate) will not reduce global CO2 emissions. Good discussion of that here at Institute of Structural Engineers:
https://www.istructe.org/events/hq/2023/the-efficient-use-of-ggbs
draft of the paper can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7077576438631034880/
Excellent and informative post, Ed. This type of subject isn’t necessarily very exciting to a lot of people but your exposition of the ‘under the bonnet’ stuff is a great way to counter the way we take many things in our modern world for granted. Keep up the good work.