Displaying items by tag: sustainability

UK: Russell Roof Tiles has installed a 165kW solar power plant as part of a €22.2m upgrade to its Burton concrete roof tiles plant in Staffordshire. Energy company Alt-Group supplied the solar power plant, which is equipped with Solis Inverters’ energy storage inverters. The upgraded Burton plant also features wash water recycling.

Russell Roof Tiles has signed a pledge to achieve Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ neutrality by 2040.

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Readymix and Finland-based Betolar have launched two new reduced-CO₂ concretes, produced using ground granulated blast furnace slag and natural pozzolans with Betolar’s Geoprime technology. One of the products is cement-free and the other has an ultra-low (2.5%) cement content. TradeArabia News has reported that the dual launch concludes a successful partnership between the companies, which began in 2023.

Saudi Readymix technology and strategy director Chris Leptokaridis said "Saudi Readymix has been at the forefront of developing new technologies to meet our customers' increasing demand for eco-friendly, low-CO₂ solutions. Our partnership with Betolar has enabled us to successfully deliver on this goal, offering groundbreaking concrete recipes that significantly reduce carbon emissions."

Betolar senior researcher Ahmad Alzaza said "This project pushed the boundaries of innovation by bringing low-carbon technology into the ready-mix concrete space. We are proud to have contributed to a solution that will help advance sustainable construction across Saudi Arabia."

UK: Switzerland-based Neustark has partnered with Holcim subsidiary Aggregate Industries to launch the UK’s first mineralisation plant in Greenwich, London. The small-scale mobile plant will sequester CO₂ in recycled concrete produced using fines recovered from construction and demolition materials (CDM). The plant is situated at an existing Aggregates Industries CDM recycling site. A large-scale plant with a sequestration capacity of 1000t/yr of CO₂ is due to follow in early 2025.

Neustark CEO Valentin Gutknecht said "Neustark and Holcim have been working together almost since the founding of Neustark five years ago. 1Mt of CO₂ durably removed from the atmosphere in 2030 – that’s our ambition. We’re already well underway towards the megatonne goal. Our strategic partnership with Holcim represents a significant part of this roadmap. It will be a true catalyst to further scale up the permanent carbon removal impact that we generate in the next few years.”

Aggregate Industries CEO Lee Sleight said that the partnership would turn London into ‘one of the world’s largest urban mines.’ He said “This isn’t just a great carbon removal innovation but a great circular economy innovation, where we are taking what was once a waste stream and reusing it, saving us from digging up virgin materials in the first place."

Neustark has so far sequestered 2500t of CO₂ in circular concrete for use in further construction.

Greece: Titan Cement Group subsidiary Interbeton has launched Velter, a circular, 30% reduced-CO₂ ready-mix concrete. The product comes with a Type III environmental product declaration from Eurocert.

Director of concrete operations Christoforos Voulgaris said "This new product line gives engineers, architects, builders and investors the opportunity to differentiate their projects with improved durability and a meaningful contribution to mitigating the effects of climate change.”

Canada: Climate technology company CarbonCure Technologies has announced that it has ‘saved’ over 500,000t of CO₂ across 7.5m truckloads of concrete. CarbonCure uses a technology that injects captured CO₂ into fresh concrete, which is mineralised and permanently stored, and which enables concrete producers to reduce cement usage while maintaining strength. The solution integrates into existing concrete plant operations, allowing for both environmental benefits via a reduced CO₂ footprint and cost savings through reduced cement consumption, according to the company. The company also claims that for every 1t of CO₂ that is mineralised in ready mix concrete, another 50t of CO₂ is ‘avoided’ by reducing emissions from cement adjustments.

CEO of CarbonCure Technologies Rob Niven said “This milestone reflects the strong sustainability leadership of CarbonCure’s innovative concrete producer partners. Together, we are proving that reducing the carbon footprint of concrete is not just a goal for the future — it can happen, and it is happening, today at scale.”

Saudi Arabia: City Cement subsidiary Nizak Mining Company has entered talks with UK-based calcined clay producer Next Generation SCM about a possible joint venture. The proposed joint venture will build a reduced-CO₂ concrete plant in Riyadh, with further such plants to follow. TradeArabia News has reported that commercial-scale production will commence in mid-late 2025, with an initial target capacity of 350,000t/yr.

City Cement CEO Majed Alosailan said "This joint venture is a significant step in our commitment to the continued growth of Saudi Arabia as a global materials and infrastructure hub. Not only will it support domestic job creation, it will also dramatically improve accessibility to critical low-carbon materials that we will soon be able to export around the region. As the materials transition continues to accelerate, finding solutions that support the Kingdom’s infrastructure ambitions hand in hand with sustainability targets is essential to realise the opportunity ahead."

Next Generation SCM CEO Christian Husum said "There are over 4bn people who live in urban areas right now, and that is going to increase by 2bn over the next 30 years. This is a massive, global building project, which is equivalent to building an additional New York City every month. Those cities will also need the infrastructure to cope with an influx of people and there is no way to do that without concrete. There is also no way for our planet to cope with concrete production at that scale unless we find a way of producing it without generating enormous amounts of carbon emissions. Now, there is a way. This joint venture will put the process into practice to bring about a revolution in how we build everything from stadiums to skyscrapers in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and then the world.”

Sweden/Switzerland: Holcim has partnered with US-based retail company Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund to invest in CO₂-sequestering concrete filler developer Paebbl and 3D printers 14Trees. The Paebbl investment is part of a US$25m Series A funding round jointly led by Germany-based venture capital firm Capnamic. Holcim says that the new investment will help Paebbl to scale up. Meanwhile, 14Trees, which is a joint venture of Holcim and British International Investment, will also scale up its operations to begin 3D printing larger buildings, including data centres.

Paebbl co-CEO Marta Sjögren said "We are thrilled to welcome first movers in their respective fields, Amazon and Holcim, as first commercial partners to bring our vision to market. This funding round enables us to take even bolder steps in our mission to make the built environment a cornerstone of the decarbonised economy."

14Trees managing director Francois Perrot said "We are excited to count Amazon and Holcim as investors in 14 Trees, to take our successful 3D-printed technology from homes and schools to data centres, to deliver low-carbon and high-performance buildings."

Holcim’s chief sustainability officer Nollaig Forrest said "By investing with Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund into 14Trees and Paebbl, we can scale up these pioneering technologies to push the boundaries of sustainable building, from 3D printing to making concrete a carbon sink."

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement says it is progressing with its C4S project to develop a novel concrete imbued with CO₂ from direct air capture (DAC). The project is a collaboration with the University of Tokyo, with support from the Japanese New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO). Taiheiyo Cement says that concrete developed by the partnership aids faster CO₂ capture via DAC, increasing strength, confirmed seismic resistance and carbon neutrality per full life-cycle assessment.

Taiheiyo Cement says that the eventual certification of DAC-carbonated concrete will play a significant role in the decarbonisation of the Japanese construction sector.

Canada: Canal Block will begin to produce CarbiCrete's cement-free concrete products under licence from 2025. The partners say that they have installed a new curing system for the purpose at Canal Block’s Port Colborne plant. Innovation cluster NGen awarded them US$4.04m in funding for the project.

Canal Block president Durk Bylsma said "We look forward to offering a carbon-negative masonry unit to Ontario's construction market in 2025.”

CEO Jacob Homiller said "We are tremendously pleased to bring our cement-free concrete technology to Ontario through Canal Block."

South Korea: 13 small and medium-sized operators of ready-mix concrete plants in Jeonju, North Jeolla, have announced their intent to procure environmental product declarations (EPDs) for their products. The companies include Daeyeon Concrete and Seoji Ready-mixed Concrete. The Maeil Business Newspaper has reported that construction firm Posco E&C will cover part of the costs of the certifications.

Posco E&C said that this collaboration will help it to ensure a supply of reduced-CO₂ concrete for its upcoming residential property developments in Jeonju.