The impacts of climate change are being felt across the world, and action is being taken throughout all industrial sectors to reduce harmful emissions, with a focus on minimising carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. The built environment is a major contributor and in the UK, this is responsible for around a quarter of our total emissions, of which approximately half is attributable to construction. Whilst industry, government and research bodies have been proactive in developing decarbonisation roadmaps to meet our net-zero targets by 2050, they often lack transparency and rely on optimistic technological improvement. Moreover, they are static and quickly become outdated.

Project aims

The MaDe-UP project aims to address the limitations presented by current studies by providing an interactive, open-access platform to investigate future decarbonisation pathways for construction materials in the UK.

Project overview

MaDe-UP enables a broad audience to engage with the decisions and drivers behind the decarbonisation of key materials, with implications for project, company and policy decision-making. As concrete and steel are amongst the largest emitters, there is a focus on their decarbonisation, but flexibility in the modelling makes this tool applicable to any process where the parameters can be defined.

How it works

The tool calculates the carbon intensity (embodied carbon factor) of materials based on defined production streams. The streams consist of a series of processes, with each process definition (e.g. calcination) including a recipe describing what the input resources and output products are from that individual process. By modelling a change event timeline e.g. switching from fossil fuels to biomass in cement kilns, the impact of change can be assessed for that stream.

Sounds simple. What is so special?

By enabling the change events to be interactive and, in some cases, user-defined, this already sets MaDe-UP apart from some other tools. Overlay this with material flow data for the UK, so that national contributions can be calculated, and it becomes more powerful. But what makes MaDe-UP really special is the ability to run production streams concurrently, so that the interaction between them can be investigated. Although the background data is UK specific, national datasets could be implemented for use in other regions.

Is this prospective LCA?

There is an element of commonality with both Material Flow Analysis (MFA) and Prospective Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) but MaDe-UP doesn’t promise to be either. Prospective LCA offers a methodology to map future carbon intensities, but existing tools are complex, take time to execute, and do not model interaction between materials. MaDe-UP addresses these negative aspects and offers a simpler approach accessible to a wide cohort of potential users. It enables stakeholders such as structural engineers, steel and concrete producers, product manufacturers and policymakers to explore future decarbonisation scenarios, supporting transparent, informed and impartial decision-making.

Where we are now

We are building on previous research conducted under the UK FIRES programme, translating the methodology to an online app. We gathered feedback from stakeholders on the tool concept in a workshop in July 2025. We are launching the beta version in April 2026 and inviting further feedback at that stage. After launch, the tool will be accessible through the link below.