Big changes coming to how Amazon builds in the UK
Retail giant Amazon has announced that it is testing several new emerging construction technologies in the UK as part of a major decarbonisation push.
This includes cement-free paving and carbon-storing concrete at its new £40 million Stockton-on-Tees delivery station. Amazon said that the delivery station is its first UK building to pursue zero carbon certification, and it expects the station to create around 100 jobs.
Swedish industrial resilience startup Paebbl makes a building material called Paebbl Rebond. At the Stockton-on-Tees site, the material is used in the concrete floor of the service yard, replacing part of the conventional cement binder with a mineral material. Paebbl said that the material is designed to store more carbon than is emitted in its production.
The installed sections carry embedded fibre-optic sensors tracking performance over time, alongside other concrete solutions installed for direct comparison—all under the genuine day-to-day loads of a working delivery station.
Paving made without cement
Amazon also confirmed that it is working with CarbiCrete, a Montreal-based carbon removal technology company developing low-cost building solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Its process replaces cement entirely with steel slag, a by-product from the steelmaking industry, and cures it using a patented method that locks captured CO₂ inside the finished paving.
According to CarbiCrete, the production of these units has removed 33 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. “Amazon’s confidence in deploying CarbiCrete products at this scale brings us credibility,” Gary Belisle, CEO at CarbiCrete says, describing early adopters as essential to establishing the use of the technology as a drop-in replacement for cement-based concrete, and as a means to lower the embodied carbon of a construction project.
A push towards decarbonisation
Amazon has a goal to reach net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040, and decarbonising buildings is a significant part of reaching this climate pledge, said Chris Roe (Director of Worldwide Sustainability, Carbon and Energy at Amazon).
“We know Amazon’s scale gives us the opportunity and responsibility to help drive important industry shifts, and working with promising startups on lower-carbon construction materials is one of the ways we can accelerate progress across the entire built environment sector.”
