For most of this year, analysts have predicted an uptick in construction activity. The fundamentals are solid, and the political will is there. But reality hasn’t yet met those expectations.

Now the industry holds its breath, awaiting the impact of planning reforms, the Future Homes Standard, and November’s budget. The hope is for a policy landscape that gets the nation building, and building more sustainably.

In some ways, it’s easier to forecast further into the future. As climate scientists say, we can predict the long-term trend with more certainty than next week’s weather.

With climate in mind, there’s one trend we can confidently pick out for construction. Embodied carbon is rising up the agenda.

Embodied carbon is now responsible for around half of the total carbon cost of a building, so it’s inevitable the UK will follow the lead of other countries in setting building carbon limits. But construction isn’t waiting to be forced to act.

Whether it’s developers aiming to meet voluntary building standards, customers seeking to reduce their scope 3 emissions, or contractors responding to homeowner requests, we’re seeing increased demand for lower-carbon solutions now. Embodied carbon is becoming part of the performance criteria construction products are judged on.

That creates opportunities for merchants, who can respond to this new demand by ensuring they have verified low-carbon solutions within their product portfolio.

For some product types, that will require embracing new materials. But for insulation, low-carbon options are already readily available.

In the UK, glass mineral wool has the lowest carbon of any mainstream insulation material, driven by factors like sustainable raw material supply, its relative lower density, and compression packaging.

Rock mineral wool carbon levels are higher, but when our new factory in Shotton comes onstream with its electric arc melting technology, it will add 105,000 tonnes of low-carbon products to the UK market.

Much-needed capacity to meet the forecast demand for low-carbon solutions.