Displaying items by tag: Sustainability
Cemex is an Energy Star Partner of the Year 2020
28 April 2020US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared Cemex USA an Energy Star Partner of the Year, the highest award for energy-efficient production in the US. Cemex USA President Jaime Muguiro said, “Sustainability is embedded in our day-to-day operations and is an integral part of our core business strategy. Energy conservation is part of our vision as we are building a better future and believe it’s our responsibility to vigorously practice energy management through on-going initiatives and the use of alternative fuels.”
Cemex USA has earned more than 50 Energy Stars since 2007.
Titan Cement publishes integrated annual report
15 April 2020Greece: Titan Cement has published its integrated annual report for 2019, a year in which its net profit fell by 5.5% year-on-year to Euro50.9m from Euro53.8m in 2018 and sales rose by 8.0% to Euro1.61bn from Euro1.49bn. The company noted its ‘sustained performance and stronger cash flow generation’ throughout the year, with growing demand in the US and Southeastern Europe and the beginning of growth in Greece, in spite of a 7.0% year-on-year fall in cement volumes to 17.0Mt from 18.2Mt in 2018. Challenging conditions in Egypt and Turkey caused the group’s performance to deteriorate.
Titan Cement said that it is ‘on track to meet the Group’s 2020 sustainability targets and has already met ‘all targets related to emissions and water consumption.’ It acknowledged inevitable ‘short-term impacts’ of coronavirus, including reduced sales volumes ‘particularly and more severely in the second quarter of 2020,’ and has strengthened its liquidity position to Euro400m.
A short look at low carbon cement and concrete
01 April 2020Cement and concrete products with sustainability credentials have increased in recent years as societies start to demand decarbonisation. In spite of the recent drop in the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) price, there has been a trend in recent years in the construction industry towards offerings with better environmental credentials. Indeed, this week’s position paper from Cembureau on a carbon border mechanism concerns directly the growth of these kinds of products within Europe. Typically, the higher profile projects have been slag cement or concrete implementations such as Hanson’s use of its Regen cement substitute in a London sewer project or David Ball Group’s Cemfree concrete in a road project also in the UK. In this short review we’ll take a selective look at a few of the so-called low carbon cement and concrete products currently available.
Table 1: Some examples of methods to reduce embodied CO2 in cement and concrete. Note - the product examples are selective. In some cases many other products are available.
Material | Type | Method | Product examples |
Cement | SCM cement | Lower clinker factor | Many products |
Cement | Limestone calcined clay cement | Lower clinker factor | LC3, FutureCem, Polysius activated clay, H-EVA |
Cement | Calcium silicate cement | Reduced process emissions | Solidia, Celitement |
Cement | Recycled concrete fines | Reduced lifecycle emissions | Susteno |
Cement | Geopolymer cement | Reduced process emissions | Vertua |
Cement | Calcium sulphoaluminate cements | Reduced process emissions | Many products |
Concrete | CO2 curing/mineralisation | Uses CO2 and reduces water usage | Solidia, CarbonCure Technologies |
Concrete | Recycled concrete coarse | Reduced lifecycle emissions | Evopact, EcoCrete, FastCarb |
Concrete | SCM concrete | Uses less or no cement | Cemfree, Carbicrete, Regen |
Concrete | Uses less cement in mix | Uses less cement | |
Concrete | Admixtures | Uses less cement | |
Concrete | Locally sourced aggregate / better supply chain logistics | Reduced transport emissions | |
Concrete | Geopolymer concrete | Uses no cement | E-Crete |
Concrete | Graphene concrete | Uses less cement | Concrene |
Concrete | Carbon offsetting | Separate offsetting scheme | Vertua |
Looking at cement first, the easiest way for many producers to bring a lower carbon product to market has been to promote cements made using secondary cementitious materials (SCM) such as granulated blast furnace slag or fly ash. These types of cements have a long history, typically in specialist applications and/or in relation to ease of supply. For example, cement producers in eastern India often manufacture slag cements owing to the number of local steel plants. However, cement producers have more recently started to publicise their environmental credentials as they reduce the clinker factor of the final product. Alongside this though, in Europe especially, a number of so-called low carbon cement producers have appeared on the scene such as EcoCem and Hoffman Green Technologies. These newer producers tend to offer SCM cement products or other low carbon ones built around a grinding model. It is likely that their businesses have benefitted from tightening EU environmental legislation. How far cement producers can pivot to SCM cement products is contentious given that slag and fly ash are finite byproducts of other industries that are also under pressure to decarbonise. Although it should be noted that other SCMs such as pozzolans exist.
As will be seen below a few of the methods to reduce embodied CO2 in cement and concrete can be used in both materials. SCMs are no exception and hold a long history in concrete usage. As mentioned above David Ball Group sells Cemfree a concrete product that contains no cement. Harsco Environmental, a minerals management company, invested US$3m into Carbicrete, a technology start-up working on a cement-free concrete, in late 2019.
Limestone calcined clay cements are the next set of products that are starting to make an appearance through the work of the Swiss-government backed LC3 project, more commercial offerings like FutureCem from Cementir and H-EVA from Hoffman Green Technologies and today’s announcement about ThyssenKrupp’s plans to fit the Kribi cement plant in Cameroon with its Polysius activated clay system. They too, like SCM cements, reduce the clinker factor of the cement. The downside is that, as in the name, the clay element needs to be calcined requiring capital investment, although LC3 make a strong case in their literature about how fast these costs can be recouped in a variety of scenarios.
Calcium silicate cements offer reduced process emissions by decreasing the lime content of the clinker lowering the amount of CO2 released and bringing down the temperature required in the kiln to make the clinker. Solidia offers its calcium silicate cement as part of a two-part system with a CO2 cured concrete. In the US LafargeHolcim used Solidia’s product in a commercial project in mid-2019 at a New Jersey paver and block plant. Solidia’s second core technology is using CO2 to cure concrete and reducing water usage. They are not alone here as Canada’s CarbonCure Technologies uses CO2 in a similar way with their technology. In their case they focus more on CO2 mineralisation. In Germany, Schwenk Zement backed the Celitement project, which developed a hydraulic calcium hydro silicate based product that does not use CO2 curing. Celitement has since become part of Schwenk Zement.
Solidia isn’t the only company looking at two complementary technologies along the cement-concrete production chain. A number of companies are looking at recycling concrete and demolition waste. Generally this splits into coarse waste that is used as an aggregate substitute in concrete and fine waste that is used to make cement. LafargeHolcim has Evopact for the coarse waste and Susteno for the fine. HeidelbergCement has EcoCrete for the coarse and is researching the use of fines. Closing the loop for heavy building material producers definitely seems like the way to go at the moment and this view is reinforced by the involvement of the two largest multinational producers.
Of the rest of the other low carbon cement methods detailed in table 1 these cover other non-Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) such as geopolymer and calcium sulphoaluminate cements. The former are a type of alkali activated binder and generally lack common standards. The latter are similar to slag cements in that they are established specialist products with lower CO2 emissions than OPC.
With concrete when trying to make a low carbon product the first choice is whether to choose a low-carbon cement as the binder or even not to use cement at all in the case of Regen or Cemfree. From here the next step is to simply use less cement in a concrete mixture. There are a number of ways to do this from optimising aggregate gradation, following performance specifications more closely, using strength tests like maturity methods and generally adhering to quality control protocols better to deliver more consistency. Read the Mineral Production Association (MPA) publication Specifying Sustainable Concrete for more detail on this. Using concrete admixtures can also help make concrete more sustainable by improving quality and performance at construction sites through the use of plasticisers and accelerators, by decreasing embodied carbon through the use of water reducers and by improving the whole life performance of concretes. The use of locally-sourced aggregates is also worth noting here since it can reduce associated transport CO2 emissions.
More novel methods of reducing embodied CO2 emissions in concrete include the use of geopolymer concrete in the case of Zeobond Group’s E-Crete or adding graphene as Concrene does. Like geopolymer cements, geopolymer concretes are relatively new and lack common standards. Products like Concrene, meanwhile, remain currently at the startup level. Finally, if all else fails, offsetting the CO2 released by a cement or concrete product is always an option. This is what Cemex has done with its Vertua Ultra Zero product. The first 70% reduction in embodied CO2 is gained through the use of geopolymer cement. Then the remaining 30% reduction is achieved through a carbon offsetting scheme via a carbon neutral certification verified by the Carbon Trust.
As can be seen, a variety of methods exist for cement and concrete producers to reduce the embodied CO2 of their products and call them ‘low-carbon.’ For the moment most remain in the ‘novelty section’ but as legislators promote and specifiers look for sustainable construction they continue to become more mainstream. What has been interesting to note from this short study is that some companies are looking at multiple solutions along the production and supply chain whilst others are concentrating on single ones. The companies looking at multiple methods range from the biggest building material producers like LafargeHolcim and HeidelbergCement to smaller newer ones like Solidia and Hoffman Green Technologies. Also of note is that many of these products have existed already in various forms for a long time like SCM cements and concretes or the many ways concretes can be made more sustainable through much simpler ways such as changing aggregate sourcing or working more efficiently. In many cases once markets receive sufficient stimulus it seems likely that low carbon cement and concrete products will proliferate.
Global Cement is researching a market report on low carbon cement and concrete. If readers have any comments to make please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Cemex reports on sustainability steps taken in 2019
27 March 2020Mexico: Cemex has shared its 2019 sustainability achievements in an integrated report entitled ‘Innovating for a Better World,’ which analyses the company’s strategic vision, operational performance and corporate governance against its commitment to drive innovation in the cement sector. Throughout the year, the company introduced its new Climate Action strategy to reduce CO2 emissions by 35% by 2030 and established an ambition to deliver net-zero CO2 concrete by 2050. It achieved an alternative fuel substitution rate of 28%, its highest since 2014, bringing its net specific CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious product to 624kg.
Cemex’s net income was US$179m in 2019, down by 69% year-on-year from US$570m in 2018. Its sales declined by 8%, to US$4.3bn from US$4.7bn
Mexico: Cemex has worked with AES Mexico, the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature (FMCN), the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) through the General Wildlife Direction, and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) to successfully reintroduce 19 American bison specimens (Bison bison) in El Carmen Nature Reserve, in Coahuila, to establish the second conservation herd of this species in Mexico.
“For almost two decades, we have carried out different alliances with companies and conservation organisations to protect and increase biodiversity in El Carmen. Examples of this include the reintroduction of the American bison, the bighorn sheep, and the pronghorn, as well as the increase in the populations of desert mule deer, white-tailed deer, and black bear,” said Vicente Saisó, director of sustainability at Cemex.
El Carmen Nature Reserve is a private cross-border conservation area in Mexico and the US that contains five different ecosystems and habitats to diverse species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians over more than 140,000 hectares.
The American bison is the largest land mammal in North America and was present in the plains of Canada, the US and Mexico. In Mexico, American bison lived in the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Durango; however, it the species was depleted in the second half of the 19th century. Currently, it is a species that is in danger of extinction in Mexico.
Prior to this collaboration, the only herd of bison considered genetically pure was at Rancho El Uno, owned by FMCN, located within the Janos Biosphere Reserve, Chihuahua. 19 specimens from this herd were moved to El Carmen, located in Maderas del Carmen Flora and Fauna Protection Area by a team of wildlife management specialists. The plan to reintroduce the American bison in El Carmen Nature Reserve was launched in April of 2019, and it will continue until 2021 with the translocation of additional specimens.
Cembureau cranks up Environmental Product Declaration standards
27 February 2020EU: Cembureau has responded to the European standardisation organisation Cenelec’s CEN/TC 350 ‘sustainability of construction works’ rules by amending its European Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for CEM I, CEM II and CEM III, corresponding to Portland cement, Portland-composite cement and blast furnace cement respectively. It says the update brings the three main cement types into ‘full alignment with the EU Commission strategy for a sustainable built environment.’
McInnis Cement issues innovation call for carbon capture and utilisation technologies
13 February 2020Canada: McInnis Cement, Écotech Québec and the Gaspésie Cleantech Hub, in collaboration with the Québec Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation, have launched a call for innovations to identify carbon capture and utilisation technologies for the Port-Daniel-Gascons, McInnis cement plant. This call for innovations will run until May 2020 and then selected organisations will be invited to explore future options.
“From the moment the company was founded, McInnis Cement has been exploring the option of replacing some of the hydrocarbons used as fuel for the plant with locally generated residual forest biomass so as to reduce its environmental emissions,” said Maryse Tremblay, Director of Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility at McInnis Cement. She added that a study to verify the feasibility of using this type of alternative fuels is underway and that this may be followed by a pilot project.
Écotech Québec is a non-profit organisation, funded by the provincial government, which represents Québec's ‘clean’ technology cluster. It supports businesses, researchers, investors and associations to help accelerate the development, financing and commercialisation of clean technologies. The Gaspésie Cleantech Hub is an economic development organisation created to help the region increase the economic benefits of establishing the McInnis cement plant.
FLSmidth grows cement revenue in tough market conditions
12 February 2020Denmark: FLSmidth has increased the sales from its cement division despite ‘challenging’ marketing conditions. Its revenue grew by 3% year-on-year to Euro1.13bn in 2019 from Euro1.10bn in 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 28% to Euro65m from Euro51m. It achieved this despite its order intake falling by 16% to Euro1bn from Euro1.19bn. It attributed its revenue increase to high order backlog conversion and positive currency exchange effects. Internal efficiency measures and a ‘selective’ approach to large projects were also said to have helped.
“We were pleased to see that the financial performance of our Cement business showed a positive development despite challenging market conditions,” said FLSmidth Group chief executive officer (CEO) Thomas Schulz. He added that sustainability and digitalisation would be key differentiators in the coming years and that the engineering company was ‘well-positioned’ in both areas.
Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua commits to Science Based Targets towards reducing CO2 emissions
31 January 2020Mexico: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) says it will commit to setting greenhouse gas reduction targets in line with climate science by joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTI). GCC will set science-based emission reduction targets in line with the level of decarbonisation required to keep global temperature increase well-below 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures, as described in the latest Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“By joining the SBTI, GCC will ensure that the company´s low-carbon transformation is aligned with climate science and is a further reflection of our unwavering commitment to implement global best practices related to sustainability,” said Enrique Escalante, GCC´s chief executive officer (CEO).
Building materials as a service
15 January 2020Here’s a fun idea: providing building materials as a service. Instead of the owner of a building possessing all the materials in it forever, they simply rent them. It would be like a music or television streaming service. A ‘Netflix’ or ‘Spotify’ for the construction industry. ‘Rentacrete’ if you will…
The Guardian Cities series has been discussing the idea this week in a feature on whether buildings should be demolished at the end of their lifetime. The feature largely looks at the ideas of Dutch architect and commentator Thomas Rau, the author of Material Matters. He talks about his ‘materials passport’ concept whereby all the materials in a building are logged with their properties to highlight their value when the structure is demolished. This is a refinement of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) system. Rau has put his passport premise into action for a couple of projects through his firm and the Madaster Foundation promotes its use.
The next steps that he envisages are buildings where the materials that constitute it are simply rented from the manufacturer. Since the material owners would now become companies they would have an interest in efficiency where the materials can be refitted, such as lighting, and/or recycled for when the building is torn down. In Rau’s view these companies would be in a better position to recoup the value of these materials when a building is demolished. He estimates that 18% of a building’s original construction cost can be preserved in this way. Suddenly, sustainability becomes much easier by changing one’s perspective on who owns what exactly in a building.
How this idea would work in practice raises all sorts of questions. For example, most buildings in the developed world last for as least as long as humans do. Which companies could be relied on to hang around this long? Building materials as a service might work for soft materials that are replaced more often, such as lighting and other interior fittings, but could this extend to a structure’s shell? One answer to this is that people invest in pension schemes and use banks quite happily over long periods time, so why not a building’s very fabric? Another issue is of liability and whether a manufacturer would want to take on additional responsibilities for its products decades later. This, and the idea in general, have similarities to the extended product responsibility strategy. Obviously someone needs to try out building materials as a service for real to tackle these questions and many more.
Building materials as a service is compelling but one reason that the construction industry has proved resistant to the digital revolution across the entire business, so far, is because it ultimately deals with physical products that people need permanently. Consumer digital renting services for media, like Netflix and Spotify, are ‘disposable’. Hence, the mindset is different. That’s not to say that building materials as a service is impossible just that it is a harder shift in thinking. A country with a high level of residential renting, for example, might find it easier to move to this model than one with high levels of home ownership.
One more thing to consider is that the media renting companies mentioned above are dependent on other companies producing the content. Due to this they have moved towards vertical integration as the producers themselves, notably Disney in 2019 which has started to set up its own online rental platform. The point here being that in a product rental environment, whoever produces the product, holds a large amount of influence. Building materials manufacturers take note. Building materials as a service might just be a talking point on the lecture circuit along the road towards sustainability in the construction industry. Yet if it did happen at any scale then the producers of concrete, mortar, bricks, steel and all the rest would be well placed to benefit from it.