Reading a map

How many people still read a map when driving somewhere? Time was when a route was worked out via a huge AA roadmap before any journey. Nowadays, we are far more likely to rely on sat navs or smartphones to get us to our destination. But by ditching the map, do we miss the bigger picture?

This point was brought to mind by the growing number of ‘roadmaps’ within construction – and the concrete sector in particular. Our sat navs get us from A to B with clinical precision (albeit with the occasional turn down a one-way street) and work out routes in seconds. But the trusty map needs careful attention, minute working out, a random bit of local knowledge, a view of the wider area and someone to help navigate and follow the road. It also helps if one can read the signs and symbols.

On a journey

The analogy with industry trying to reach its own ‘destination’ is obvious. ‘Roadmap’ is also a nice, short soundbite that exudes purpose in taking stakeholders on a journey.

In October 2020, the UK concrete and cement industry launched a roadmap to become net negative for carbon by 2050.

UK Concrete identified that net zero can be met through decarbonised electricity and transport networks, fuel switching, greater use of low-carbon cements and concretes, as well as carbon capture, use and storage technology for cement manufacture. Crucially, the plan involves no offsetting.

A year later, the Global Cement and Concrete Association took the idea of a roadmap to the world. Forty of the world’s major cement and concrete manufacturers came together pledging to cut CO2 emissions by a further 25% by 2030, a step on the way to net-zero concrete by 2050. If the 2020s is the decade to make things happen, then the 2030s onwards will see a full roll-out of technologies.

At the end of April, another roadmap was added to the growing collection. The Institution of Civil Engineers and the Green Construction Board launched a low-carbon concrete ‘routemap’. It brings together experts from across the industry, including the Concrete Centre, Mott MacDonald, CEMEX and many others. The report sets out three decarbonisation routes to 2050 based on what action the industry takes and how fast carbon sequestration in concrete advances. The routemap’s headline takeaway is an industry-wide rating system to disclose the carbon embedded in different concretes, similar to the energy-efficiency ratings for homes.

Joined-up thinking

Put together, all these road- or routemaps indicate an industry that is joined up in its thinking. There are clear stages that are well thought out, clearly signposted and provide a route all can follow. There may well be bumps in the road, arguments about wrong turns, poor map reading and a silent fume for the final ten miles. But by using a map to see the bigger picture, the industry has given itself every chance of reaching its destination.

?Taken from Concrete June 2022. Visit: www.concrete.org.uk