A British-made calcined clay cement designed to cut the embodied carbon of concrete will be launched to the wider construction industry on Thursday 22 October. The supplementary cementitious material partially replaces Portland clinker in standard mixes, targeting substantial CO₂ reductions compared with CEM I while remaining compatible with existing batching plants and placement methods. Structural and geotechnical designers can use the material to lower whole-life carbon on foundations, retaining structures and slabs without major changes to mix design workflows or site practice.

Digital gold holdings could reach US$160–170 billion by 2031, up from US$45–55 billion today, bringing an estimated US$95 billion in new money into bullion if providers solve trust and access issues, according to a World Gold Council–Boston Consulting Group model based on 12,000 investors in 12 countries. Vaulted accounts currently make up 89% of the digital market, with adoption up to seven times higher where products are integrated into banking or payment apps, and awareness ranging from 76% in Indonesia to 19% in Canada. The Council plans a shared “Gold as a Service” infrastructure to standardise sourcing, custody, compliance and redemption, addressing concerns such as single-location physical redemption and 400-oz. minimum delivery thresholds.

Heidelberg Materials UK has installed the first on-site nuclear‑grade concrete batching plant at EDF’s Sizewell C nuclear power station project in Suffolk, enabling production of high-specification structural and safety‑critical concrete directly within the construction perimeter. Locating the plant on site reduces heavy truck movements on local roads and allows tighter control of mix quality, temperature and delivery times for large continuous pours such as base slabs and reactor buildings. For contractors and materials engineers, this signals further normalisation of project‑specific nuclear‑grade batching to meet stringent QA and traceability requirements.