The world’s Olympians will descend on Paris, France next Summer — with the
organisers not-so-quietly-confident this will be the most sustainable
Games
ever staged. The 2024 Olympics will be unlike any other Games in history,
with a wealth of energy-conservation projects and creative innovation designed
to halve the amount of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) that usually arise from
hosting the global event. The organisers have promised to trial and help develop
solutions across food sourcing, energy generation and transport.
In the newly constructed Athletes’
Village, just
over four miles from the centre of the French capital, an example of this
innovation is clearly on display. The new neighbourhood, which comprises the
Olympic Village Plaza — which opens onto the Seine, a residential area and
an operational area connected to the main road networks — is dominated by
concrete. But this isn’t just any concrete. It is ultra-low carbon cement by
Ireland-based Ecocem — an alternative
to traditional material that significantly reduces the CO2 footprint of the
project. Known as Ecocem Ultra, the cement was developed over four years in
partnership with global construction business, VINCI Construction. It is a
hydraulic binder — produced in a way that does not involve a high-heat,
high-emissions combustion process.
Ecocem is one of many companies to start up in recent years to deliver
much-needed, low-carbon cement.
Concrete
is one of the most important substances in the world. Other than water, concrete
is the second-most consumed substance we have — dominating urban environments
all around the world. As Ecocem Managing Director Conor
O’Riain has
said:
“[It] is almost ubiquitous to the point of anonymity. It is everywhere; and yet,
concerningly, many fail to notice its environmental impact.”
As the linchpin of the built environment, demand for concrete has almost tripled
during the past 20 years. In 2021, global construction projects consumed 30
billion tonnes of the
stuff. That’s 3 million times the weight of the Eiffel Tower. Today, cement
production is responsible for 8
percent
of the world’s GHGs — with every tonne of cement made emitting almost a tonne of
CO2.
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The primary source of these emissions is the chemical reaction known as
calcination, where limestone (calcium carbonate) is heated to produce lime
(calcium oxide) — a process that releases substantial amounts of carbon into the
atmosphere. The high-temperature kilns (reaching as high as 1,450°C) used to
heat the raw materials to produce clinker — cement’s main component — burn
through a significant amount of coal and petroleum coke. These are fossil fuels
that not only contribute to CO2 emissions but also release other pollutants —
including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide — causing air pollution and poor
health.
A finger can also be pointed to the mining and quarrying of limestone and clay
as a cause of
deforestation
and loss of
biodiversity.
The good news is that the technology already exists to reduce the impact of
concrete production. Of course, reducing our use of clinker is easier said than
done — especially with huge infrastructure projects all around the world showing
no shows of slowing down. But substituting traditional cement for a less harmful
alternative that does exactly the same job could well be the answer.
“We can’t really do without concrete — so we had to figure out a way to make it
more environmentally efficient at scale, at a reasonable cost,” Grant
Quasha, CEO of Eco Material
Technologies, told Sustainable Brands®. His
business is blazing a trail for concrete substitutes across North America;
its roughly seven million tons of “supplementary cementitious materials” account
for half of all sales.
The majority of these materials are being recycled from fly
ash — the waste material
left over in many power plants and commonly just thrown away.
“Several decades ago, our predecessor companies realized you could repurpose
that material and use it in concrete. Not only does it reduce the amount of
emissions and the cost of the concrete, it also actually makes it stronger and
better,” Quasha says. “There’s two billion tons of fly ash in the US and it’s an
environmental hazard. So, we dig the material out of the ground, clean it up,
beneficiate it with our technology, and then sell it to put it in concrete.”
Eco Material Technologies continues to experiment with its production — finding
new ways to increase the percentage of carbon-free cement in its concrete
products.
“With our proprietary technology, we can upgrade the reactivity so that the glue
takes the same amount of time to set and you can set your concrete and drive
over it the next day. You don’t have to wait a week,” he adds.
In the US alone, other potential startup solutions that are gaining ground
include:
-
Watershed
Materials’
clay-based cement alternative, which is twice as strong as ordinary
concrete.
-
More novel still,
Fortera
has created a cement-like material that actually converts CO2 into cement —
reducing CO₂ emissions by more than 60 percent. And it’s 10 percent cheaper
than conventional cement, according to the company.
-
Solidia has staked claims on its
carbon-absorbing concrete. Using a chemical process licensed from Rutgers
University, it uses less limestone and therefore requires less heat.
Instead of curing the concrete with water, the process has been tweaked to
use carbon dioxide instead.
According to McKinsey, cement companies that adopt circular business models
— such as using digital marketplaces for waste and taking on circular
technologies to adjust to evolving business risks — will reap undeniable
benefits: A recent
analysis
suggests such a move could deliver an extra €110 billion in net value and avoid
two billion tons of CO₂ emissions by 2050.
But if low-carbon cement and concrete are to become the norm — and companies
such as Eco Material Technologies are to dominate the building sector —
policies, legislation and standards will need to be tweaked. The Alliance for
Low-Carbon Cement and Concrete (ALCCC) — a
coalition of European innovators and construction firms — is calling
on
the European Union to set ambitious targets for low-carbon,
resource-efficient and circular construction products; using laws, standards,
and financial tools to reduce the environmental burden of concrete.
“A crucial first step would be replacing the existing, recipe-based standards on
cement and concrete with a performance-based approach — finally allowing the
uptake of all low-carbon cement and concrete solutions on the market,” it
says. “The legislative framework should incentivise low-carbon solutions in the
industry — never discourage them — as this gives a competitive advantage to
traditional, polluting, carbon- and energy-intensive technologies.”
As the crowds gather in the City of Lights next Summer, low-carbon concrete will
proudly take a bow. With so many viable solutions available, could the days of
heavy-polluting cement production finally be coming to an end?
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Content creator extraordinaire.
Tom is founder of storytelling strategy firm Narrative Matters — which helps organizations develop content that truly engages audiences around issues of global social, environmental and economic importance. He also provides strategic editorial insight and support to help organisations – from large corporates, to NGOs – build content strategies that focus on editorial that is accessible, shareable, intelligent and conversation-driving.
Published Jun 28, 2023 11am EDT / 8am PDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST