With one-tenth of a normal brick’s carbon emissions and made of recycled materials, K-Briq may change the construction industry

NOT counting the somewhat bland, personality-bereft Matt Baker, it’s not often a brick gets top billing on BBC One’s cosy, primetime The One Show – but then again, it’s also rare for a plain, old-fashioned building block to be hailed as a revolutionary invention.

But appearances can be deceptive. Anyone tuning into the show earlier this year may have learned this Scottish gamechanger fully deserved the hyperbole that greeted it – for K-Briq is the world’s first building material made from 90% recycled construction and demolition waste.

The first product from Heriot-Watt University’s clean tech spin-out Kenoteq, K-Briq produces just one-tenth of the CO2 emissions of a traditional fired brick and can also be made in any colour. Importantly, it also offers more effective insulation properties than traditional bricks.

It is an innovation which is particularly precedent in terms of the Scottish construction industry’s self-sustainability, with the majority of bricks used here currently imported from Europe.

Heriot-Watt’s Professor Gabriela Medero, who has a background in civil engineering, conceived the idea of the K-Briq more than a decade ago.

She said: “I wondered if it was possible to recycle site materials and reuse them in a more circular approach. This was the driving force for me to create something better.

“I have spent many years in research and have been concerned that modern construction techniques exploit raw materials without considering that they are among the largest contributors to carbon emissions. The amount of waste they produce is not sustainable long term.

“The K-Briq looks like a normal brick, weighs the same and behaves like a clay brick but offers better insulation.

“It is sustainable and not kiln-fired, so it is far better for the environment and represents massive savings for the