Resource flows in the UK’s foundation industries

The UK foundation industries supply essential materials but remain difficult to decarbonise because of high-temperature processing and process emissions. This study implements a gate-to-gate resource flow mapping, integrating material and energy inputs and outputs, by-products, and direct emissions, for selected cement, ceramics, chemicals, glass, metals, and paper products in 2019, benchmarked against global averages and product-mix-adjusted energy best practice. These products totalled 33 Mt/yr, used 330 PJ/yr of fuels and purchased electricity, and emitted 27 MtCO 2 /yr (Scope 1): 12.5 Mt from process reactions, 12.3 Mt from fossil fuels, and 2.1 Mt biogenic. Recovered materials (e.g., scrap), not counting by-products (e.g., slag), supplied 14% of material inputs excluding water and oxygen. UK energy intensity was 13% above the global benchmark. The gap to energy best practice is 28% in energy use but only 15% in direct emissions, mainly due to process-reaction emissions. This baseline can inform sectoral decarbonisation priorities and monitoring.