A fervent supporter of Scottish manufacturing, Mr McKee was keen to hear the story of the K-briq’s circular, closed loop journey from saving construction and demolition waste from landfill through a novel waste management process to being re-composed into a construction brick through a low energy process that requires no high energy firing. The K-briq then makes its way back into the construction sector for use as a facing brick within new or refurbished buildings. And at future demolition stages, the K-briq can be recovered and recycled back into new K-briqs.

“Mr McKee was really interested in hearing about the potential for the innovative K-briq,” said Professor Gabriela Medero, founder of Kenoteq. “We discussed our positive impact on the local waste and construction supply chains as well as the green jobs that Kenoteq is creating within the new company and safeguarding within our supply chain partners. He was highly supportive of our international patents and international roll-out strategy, ensuring that Scotland can play a key part in cleantech technologies and helping other countries - as well as our own - accelerate their journey to zero carbon.”

Twenty tonnes of construction and demolition waste will be processed daily at the new commercial production plant, due to be fully operational and supplying the Scottish and UK markets with certified K-briqs by late 2022, a carbon positive solution for Scotland where around 85% of bricks are currently imported. The K-briq has 90% less embodied carbon than traditional clay and concrete bricks yet competes soundly on technical specification and pricing levels. It produces a tenth of the CO2 emissions of a traditional fired brick and requires less than a tenth of the energy in its manufacture.

The new manufacturing facility was awarded £1 million of funding in May 2021 through the Circular Economy Investment Fund, which is administered by Zero Waste Scotland but funded by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund.

The funding also allows the company to create 15 new jobs in manufacturing, production, quality assurance, marketing and sales roles during the next five years.

“It is fantastic to see the appetite for the K-briq in its many possible shapes, forms and colours,” said Sam Chapman, co-founder and managing director of Kenoteq. “Architects, designers, sustainability specialists, engineers, construction companies and clients have all been stepping forward with their plans for specifying the bricks. It will be fantastic to see the first buildings featuring the K-briq going up next year.”