UK Construction Journal - Issue 1 - April 2026 - Flipbook - Page 56
Unlocking Indigenous Stone
Construction in the UK: RIBA
Research Published
Over the past twelve months, Stone Federation has been partnering with a team of architects and
structural engineers from Allies & Morrison, Sheppard Robson and Webb Yates to explore the
opportunities and barriers to UK stone being more widely used as part of the broader efforts to
decarbonise the built environment.
Launched in 2022, RIBA’s Scott Brownrigg Award for
Sustainable Development offers £10,000 to individuals or
teams interested in developing research projects or practical
work in architecture-related topics associated with one or
more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United
Nations Global Compact.
documentary capturing voices from across the UK stone
industry.
This research and the resources created are a significant
opportunity for the stone industry’s carbon-saving potential
to be put in the spotlight. The hope is that the research will
help empower the UK stone sector to grow and develop even
further.
The work challenges the idea of stone as a purely heritage
or decorative material and looks at how regionally sourced
UK stone can be used in loadbearing and hybrid applications
with clear whole-life carbon benefits. Through quarry visits,
interviews, and technical analysis, the research shows that the
main barriers to wider use are systemic rather than technical,
from fragmented supply chains to late-stage material
decisions.
You can view the published research at ukstone.co.uk
The research has been translated into a public online platform,
bringing together a sustainable sourcing guide, an interactive
quarry map, an embodied carbon calculator, and a short
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