Displaying items by tag: Global Cement and Concrete Association

World: Forty cement and concrete producers, representing 80% of concrete production outside of China in 2020, have together affirmed their commitment to the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA)’s Roadmap to Net Zero concrete decarbonisation strategy. The roadmap’s seven-point plan consists of increased cement plant efficiency, which should eliminate 22% of emissions, increased concrete production efficiency (11%), adjustments to cement and binders (9%), decarbonisation of raw materials (11%), carbon capture and storage (CCS) (36%), a transition to renewable energy (5%) and the natural recarbonation of concrete (6%).

Besides full decarbonisation by 2050, the strategy provides for a 25% reduction in the global concrete sector’s CO₂ emissions by 2030 and the elimination of 4.9Bnt of CO₂ emissions by 2030 alone. The GCCA called the new commitment a ‘significant acceleration’ of cement and concrete producers’ on-going decarbonisation efforts, and said that it represented ‘the biggest global commitment by any industry’ to carbon neutrality. Acknowledging the burden on cement producers, the GCCA called on downstream companies and governments to support the industry’s transition.

GCCA member China National Building Material (CNBM) CEO Cao Jianglin said “This is a landmark for industry co-operation in decarbonisation. As part of a global industry, it will need collaboration across our sector to achieve it. As one of the leading cement and concrete producers in China, we will play our part in decarbonising the industry.”

US: GCC plans to fully convert production at its 0.35Mt/yr Trident Plant in Montana to Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) in early 2022. The cement producer estimates that the plant’s production change will reduce its CO₂ emissions by almost 25,000t/yr.

“We believe that our industry must continue to provide the homes, roads and infrastructure that shape our world while, simultaneously, addressing the challenge of climate change,” said Ron Henley, president of GCC’s US division. “PLC is one piece of the puzzle to reduce greenhouse gases. Concrete made with PLC is a resilient material that easily meets the needs of our customers for generations to come.” He added that GCC signed the Global Cement and Concrete Association’s (GCCA) net zero pledge earlier in 2021.

India: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) India have signed a memorandum of understanding to accelerate sustainable development of cement and concrete sectors. Under the agreement, TERI will provide its domain expertise and knowledge to support GCCA India's work to achieve sustainability in the Indian cement and concrete sector, according to the Press Trust of India. The collaboration will see TERI's involvement in GCCA India work programs while GCCA India and its members will support TERI's projects on technology innovation, energy efficiency enhancement, and resource efficiency implementation.

"The demand for cement and concrete will only increase in the decades to come due to population growth and urbanisation. Therefore, reducing CO₂ emissions in the cement and concrete industry is critically important,” said Mahendra Singhi, chairman of GCCA India. He added that working with stakeholders across sectors and with civil society would be essential to reaching the association’s sustainability goals.

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has expanded its Innovandi innovation programme with the addition of a new Open Challenge innovation accelerator programme. The Open Challenge programme will bring together start-ups and leading cement and concrete producers to innovate for CO₂ emissions reduction in the cement industry. Its aim is carbon neutral concrete production by 2050.

GCCA chief executive officer Dinah McLeod said “The GCCA is delighted to be expanding Innovandi to encompass both the Research Network and the upcoming Open Challenge. By connecting innovative start-ups with cement and concrete producers we can help accelerate the development of solutions that address the emissions reduction challenges our industry faces.”

Taiwan: Taiwan Cement’s revenue fell by 7% year-on-year to US$4.02bn in 2020 from US$4.32bn in 2019. Net income grew by 4% to US$881m.

Senior vice president Edward Huang said, "In 2020, Taiwan Cement made achievements in many aspects. In additional to our sound financial performance, we also committed to the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA)’s Climate Ambition aspiring to deliver carbon neutral concrete to society by 2050. Even though challenges such as Covid-19, global economic volatility and climate change remain in 2021, Taiwan Cement is well-prepared as we continue to see stable profits in the cement industry, expand our waste treatment and energy businesses and move towards our carbon emissions reduction targets."

India: The Climate Action Programme 2.0° has awarded ACC its Orientated award for efforts towards CO₂ emissions reduction. United News of India has reported that the award assesses companies on the basis of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s climate-maturity model and the Business Excellence Framework. ACC claimed the national award in the energy, mining and heavy industries category.

Managing director and chief executive officer Sridhar Balakrishnan said, "Sustainable construction and environmental conservation are our core corporate objectives. Through our consistent focus on sustainable business practices, we have emerged as one of the companies with the lowest carbon footprints in the cement industry. This award will motivate us further to continue working towards building a greener planet." He added, “As part of global cement major LafargeHolcim, the company is committed to the Net Zero vision of the group and is an industry leader in combating climate change through consistent commitment to sustainable practices. ACC's sustainability mission is defined by the Triple Bottom Line, which signifies accomplishing three interdependent and mutually reinforcing goals of economic development, social development, and environmental protection.” ACC also became a partner of the UK-based Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA).

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has launched a video in recognition of the positive impact of women in the cement and concrete industry. The ‘call-to-action’ video also advances gender equality, in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Chief executive officer Dinah McLeod said, “As we help build the sustainable world of tomorrow, ensuring gender balance across all levels will encourage innovation and the forward thinking that we need to meet our climate goals. Our industry contributes to all UN Sustainable Development Goals including gender equality. We encourage more women to enter our industry to help shape its future and tackle the biggest challenge of our time – climate change.”

GCCA gender equality initiatives include the Global Cement and Concrete Industry Women’s Network and ‘Lean in Circles.’ The Women’s Network holds meetings and discussions to bring together women across GCCA member companies. Lean in Circles connects women across its networks in addressing specific issues. Women across the sector are encouraged to join. With these, the association aims to provide support, build confidence and ultimately increase diversity in the sector.

Denmark: FLSmidth’s group net sales fell by 20% year-on-year to Euro2.21bn in 2020 from Euro2.78bn in 2019. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before special non-recurring items fell by 44% to Euro152m from Euro270m. Net profit was Euro27.6m, down by 74% from Euro104m.

The group’s cement business recorded net sales of Euro783m, down by 31% from Euro1.14bn, and an EBITA loss of Euro15.9m, compared to a gain of Euro65.3m in 2019. It said that the cement business is not expected to be EBITA positive in 2021 due to continued cement reshaping costs. However, order intake for the cement division improved year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2020 due to a Euro101m engineering, procurement and supervision contract for a cement plant project in Ethiopia.

Chair Vagn Ove Sørensen and chief executive officer Thomas Schulz said, “The cement market is faced with on-going overcapacity and we see no short-term to medium-term recovery. Thus, we continue activities to reshape our cement business. Large economic stimulus programmes, combined with an increasing focus on lower-carbon cement, will create good opportunities in the medium- to long-term but the timing and extent of an overall rebound in the cement market remain uncertain. It is, however, clear that the cement industry will need substantial investments to meet the emissions reduction targets set by a growing number of cement producers as well as the recent commitments to carbon neutrality made by the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) and the European Cement Association. Based on the need to decarbonise, we foresee a multi-commodity cement industry in the future, utilising a range of cement production processes and a variety of raw materials. As the industry’s leading and most innovative premium supplier with strong process know-how, we are strongly positioned to benefit from this development.”

In further comments about cement industry trends the company noted that, “Following the shutdown of about 20% of the world’s cement plants outside of China in April 2020, the share of cement plants in operation has since climbed back up above 95% at year-end. However, many plants continue to run at reduced capacity and sites remain difficult to access due to restrictions and preventative measurements taken by authorities and plant operators.”

Andrew Minson from the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) kicked off this week’s Virtual Global Concrete Conference with an overview of concrete’s role in the association’s 2050 climate ambition. The association announced in September 2020 that it was starting work on this roadmap for publication in the second half of 2021, just in time for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, currently schedule to take place in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021. Minson ran through the topic, providing an overview of concrete’s intrinsic sustainable features and the policy levers the association is considering for its forthcoming roadmap.

One point from circular economy aspects of the plan included design for dis-assembly (DfD) and long life, loose fit modes of thinking around how a building using concrete should be conceived, designed, built, used and - crucially – reused. Long life, loose fit, low energy (to use its original name) was promoted by the Welsh architect Alex Gordon from the early 1970s. It covered themes of sustainability, flexibility and energy efficiency for building design ahead of both the 1970s oil crisis and the current climate one. DfD emerged in the 1990s as a way of thinking about a building’s demolition at the start and working from there. Deconstruction or demolition is prepared for through planning and design. It allows components and materials to be removed more easily, facilitating their subsequent reuse. So, components and materials can be removed more easily allowing their subsequent reuse and elements such as columns, walls, beams, and slabs can be disassembled to facilitate this. Last year Global Cement Weekly explored a similar path with the ideas of Dutch architect and commentator Thomas Rau (GCW348) and his concept of building materials as a service, following on from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) system, and the suggestion that companies simply rent (!) building materials from their manufacturers to encourage whole life thinking.

Chart 1: Uses of concrete by European Ready Mixed Concrete Organisation (ERMCO) members in 2018. Source: ERMCO.

Just how much concrete the world uses each year is a question beyond the scope of this article, given its range of applications and diversity of users. For example, the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) estimated 25Bnt in 2009. Later, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) technical committee for concrete, reinforced concrete and pre-stressed concrete placed the figure at around 33Bnt in 2016. It is worth considering how and where concrete is actually used. The chart above from the European Ready Mixed Concrete Organisation (ERMCO) shows how its members used concrete in 2018. Note that use in buildings comprised the biggest share, nearly two thirds, but that the rest included infrastructure, pavements, roads and more. Lifecycle thinking and its various offshoots can apply to all of these applications. Yet it’s easier to imagine a concrete building shell being reused within its lifespan than, say, a bridge or a road. Concrete used in infrastructure seems more suitable for re-use further down the waste hierarchy, such as recycling as an aggregate.

A few final thoughts to consider are that both Cemex and gypsum wallboard manufacturer Etex have invested in modular and/or offsite construction companies in January 2021. Both targets were relatively small companies suggesting growing interest in these sectors by larger players. Offsite building construction suits lifecycle thinking well because the modular components start off being built elsewhere before installation. Factoring in what happens afterwards should be relatively easy and expandable at scale. Finally, LafargeHolcim announced this week that it is acquiring two ready-mix concrete and aggregate suppliers in France and Italy that will give it 35 concrete plants in the region.

Sustainability places lifecycle thinking into mainstream building practice and some methods and tools will inevitably make it into any policy framework the GCCA will recommend. Whether some or all of the ideas above hang around remains to be seen but lifecycle thinking in some form or another is here already and not going anywhere.

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Taiwan: Taiwan Cement has been awarded the first product carbon footprint label by the local Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). It follows its completion of the structure of product category rules (PCR) in early August 2020 and inspection by the EPA. TCC's products will be marked with carbon footprint labels from the fourth quarter of 2020. The Taiwan-based cement producer has also announced support for the Global Cement and Concrete Association’s (GCCA) 2050 Climate Ambition plan.

TCC started its Science-Based Target project in 2019 and says it became the first cement company in the Greater China region to complete target setting and was approved by Science-Based Target initiatives (SBTi) in June 2020. Following the science-based methods promoted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from the United Nations, TCC set a target to reduce carbon emissions by 11% in 2025, using 2016 emissions as the base. TCC completed carbon footprint certification for the most popular cement products, Portland Type I cement and Ready-Mixed Concrete 3000psi, in July 2020.