Carbon Emissions

 

Sources of Emissions

The aggregates industry uses energy in several ways:

• fuel for on-site drilling, excavation and haulage vehicles, or at sea for shipping and dredging;
• wheel and road washing;
• processing plant used for crushing and grading materials;
• conveyors, extractor fans and dewatering and liquid waste pumps;
• lighting;
• heating and other facilities for buildings including workshops, offices and messing facilities;
• fuel for transportation of materials from the quarry gate to the user and used in deliveries of materials to the quarry; and
• operation of plant producing value added products such as ready mixed concrete and asphalt coated stone. For instance, ready mixed concrete consists of aggregate bound by cement. Cement has a relatively high carbon "burden" because it is made by burning limestone or chalk (calcium carbonate), with a high energy input releasing carbon dioxide from these.

Some emissions result directly from energy used at the site but others are produced elsewhere (e.g. at power stations that supply electricity to operations). In an overall assessment of sustainability, all sources of emissions should be taken into account. In the aggregates industry, the principal sources of carbon emissions, and associated costs, arise from transport of products to the market and the manufacture of value-added products, such as ready mixed concrete and asphalt coated stone. But, while value added products are closely integrated with aggregates quarrying, these are not covered by statutory carbon reduction arrangements associated with the EU Emission Trading Scheme L0558 and UK Climate Change Agreements L0559.

Further information on UK emissions trading can be found on the Environment Agency website by following this link.

However the industry is affected by the Climate Change Levy on fuel

The emergence of statutory government carbon reduction targets and the recent completion of Publicly Available Specification 2050 L0563 suggest that future work of carbon "footprinting" in the minerals industries will need to have regard to the associated principles and protocols. Purchasers of mineral products will increasingly want assessments of embodied mineral carbon that are compatible in terms of method and reported units with other components in their carbon reporting and product marketing. Carbon capping and trading schemes, would not suit the wide diversity of activity, scale and corporate structures in the minerals industries not at present subject to carbon controls. These would be bureaucratic, encouraging routine compliance rather than initiative and innovation. Depending on how schemes were designed, these could lead to distortions of competitiveness between companies because of their organisational parenthood, not their energy efficiency. A lot of good work is being done and there are many site based examples of energy management, but evidence on company commitment, take-up and monitoring progress seems to be patchy. "The rest" need to be brought up to the level of "the best" by spreading awareness, broadening company commitment and ensuring action is followed through L0560, L0561.

 

Continued with Energy Use

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