Last edited 10 Sep 2019

DuraKerb

July 29 marked Earth Overshoot Day in 2019, the calculated date when resource consumption for the year exceeded what the Earth can regenerate, replenish and renew in that year. To lessen the detrimental consequences of ecological overshoot, sustainability-focused companies are providing innovative solutions that support the drive towards a circular economy.

This date in 2019 was the earliest it has fallen since the world passed the critical threshold in the 1970s, with the UK’s country-specific day in 2019 being May 17.

The construction industry is facing pressure for rapid change. The construction industry uses more than 400 million tonnes of material a year according to a report by the UK Green Building Council [1], much of which has a negative impact on the environment. Furthermore, The National Building Specification stated that of that 400 million, 15% goes straight into landfill simply through over ordering, misordering or breakages [2].

Cement is the most widely used man-made material after water, responsible for around 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions [3]. With cement a key ingredient in concrete used for traditional kerbing, some products such as Econpro DuraKerb are designed to help reduce levels of waste disposal, but also help reduce the output of cement and the carbon emissions linked to its production. Compared to its precast concrete counterpart, DuraKerb is claimed to have saved approximately 12,000,000 kgs of emitted carbon as well as removed 1,000 articulated vehicles in transport due to the lightweight nature of the product.

Phil Sutton, Managing Director at Econpro, commented: “We are building an overwhelmingly large ecological debt more rapidly than ever before, so there has never been a more crucial time to revolutionise the ways in which we create and consume. Solving the waste disposal problem through innovative recycling techniques that reduce carbon emissions is at the very core of what we do, and what makes us strive harder every day to develop functional products and preserve natural resources. No doubt there’s a long way to go across the whole world, but Econpro is proud to be a company moving towards a circular economy and leading substantial change in the way we dispose, reuse and recycle.”