Pioneers create building blocks of next industrial revolution

In a broader sense, co-author Amory Lovins charts a path towards ‘the next industrial revolution’ and an exciting, optimistic and sustainable future.

The last industrial revolution was focussed on solving an 18th century problem: the inefficiency of labour to produce enough goods for a growing population. Without machines, human labour was inefficient and there were not enough people to produce the products to support the rising expectations of a growing population.

Industrial mechanisation solved this problem by fantastically increasing the productivity of labour. With industrial mechanisation, what took 200 cottage industry workers in 1770, could be done by one spinner in the British textile industry by 1812.

Minimisation of labour is no longer the priority. We must now learn to be less dependent on extractive industries. The next industrial revolution, Lovins argues must focus on dramatic improvements in resource efficiency. My brother and I are directors of a company that manufactures hollow concrete blocks using a radically new process invented and developed by us.

Ultimate Masonry Australia operates in the brave new world of the next industrial revolution where the priority is to lift resource efficiency by margins similar to those achieved with labour efficiency in the last industrial revolution.

To date we have achieved a six-fold increase in resource productivity. A conventional concrete block uses 15 kg of virgin materials – the block we have developed uses a sixth of that. Half of our block is microscopic bubbles of air making it 40% lighter than a conventional block. The remainder of our block is a fine powdered waste mineral called ‘flyash’. Australian coal fired power stations dump 9 million tonnes a year as landfill.

There is plenty of flyash to produce enough blocks for all brick and concrete masonry construction in Australia and the world.

Like our pioneering ancestors, our journey has been one of discovery, hardship, creativity and perseverance. We have had much to learn and many problems to solve.

The world of ‘the next industrial revolution’ is perhaps not as foreign as the outback was to my Irish ancestors but it has had its challenges and surprises.