A modern method for delivering sustainable construction

Gavin Robinson, National Business Development Manager – Added Value Solutions at Polypipe Building Services, discusses how prefabrication is becoming a key sustainability driver and helping the industry meet evolving challenges.  

Faced with the Government’s challenging pledge to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years while dealing with recent updates to the Building Safety Act, the construction industry is under increasing pressure both to deliver on quality and efficiency, and to strive towards net zero goals.  

According to a 2023 report by Make UK Modular, the Government’s housebuilding targets cannot be met with the current labour force, without taking radical steps to change how we build our homes. This means specifiers must revisit their approach to everything from manufacturing methods and onsite processes, to installation techniques and products. 

Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) have seen a slower uptake in the UK than in Europe. But high-profile developments such as a 44-storey steel frame tower in Croydon, which became the tallest modular building in the world in October 2022, have widened discussion around the benefits of MMC and demonstrated a growing confidence in new building techniques. 

The sector is also under pressure to improve sustainability across all stages of construction and, in terms of a building’s lifecycle, specifiers are increasingly turning to MMC. Since 2020, at Polypipe we’ve seen a doubling in demand for our Advantage Service, which supplies bespoke solutions, prefabricated off-site, for a wide range of projects including apartments and mixed-use buildings. 

Manufacturing sustainable solutions

Specifiers can use prefabricated systems to tackle sustainability challenges a stage before their construction and installation. Factory-controlled production allows for precise material usage, improved recycling of manufacturing waste, reduced carbon footprint and the continued improvement of embodied carbon levels within products.  

At Polypipe, we’ve recently upgraded our extrusion and moulding machines to enhance the sustainability of both our loose products and our prefabricated systems. The new machines have helped us improve product manufacturing efficiency, with the ability to run both rework and post-consumer recycled materials and thereby increase the use of recycled material across the business from 5% to 28%. Some of our products now contain as much as 65% recycled material. Modern developments and solutions from manufacturing and prefabricating systems offer construction professionals the opportunity to lower carbon footprint and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.  

Building towards net zero 

Construction methodologies play a significant role in reducing carbon emissions, with prefabrication standing out as a particularly effective way to improve sustainability while addressing labour shortages and on-site inefficiencies. 

Polypipe’s recent white paper ‘Prefabrication: the key to the transformation of construction’ compared prefabricated HDPE drainage systems to traditional approaches. The study found that prefabricated HDPE systems offer a 56% lower installed cost compared to on-site assembly of the same material, and that there is more than a 150% difference between cast iron and prefabricated HDPE. 

The white paper highlights how prefabrication reduces waste at both the manufacturing stage and on site, cutting down waste removal and recycling costs. Thanks to in-factory quality assurance and testing procedures, and the fact that prefabricated systems require less on-site assembly, the risk of leaks and subsequent repairs is reduced. The study also demonstrates how prefabricated HDPE drainage systems can reduce site logistics requirements by more than 50% compared to traditional methods. Logistically speaking, prefabricated systems require fewer deliveries to site and lightweight materials such as HDPE require less heavy machinery and labour to install, which significantly reduces transport emissions. 

Prefabrication offers multiple environmental benefits throughout the product lifecycle that complement data transparency. Modern methods, combined with the environmental data provided by EPDs, enables greater reduction of carbon emissions, improved on-site efficiencies, and increased support with logistical and cost-based challenges. Construction professionals can adopt a holistic view to carbon reduction and play an active role in delivering sustainability and decarbonisation in construction. Click here to read more by downloading the white paper.