Displaying items by tag: Sustainability

Italy: The Italian cement association Federbeton has launched its comprehensive plan for cement industry decarbonisation in line with the EU’s European Green Deal target of a 55% reduction in CO₂ emissions between 1990 and 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. The strategyidentifies increased alternative fuel (AF) substitutionas an immediately achievable strategy to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint by 12%. It contrasted the change with others such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) whichrequire further development. The sector’s primary fuel is petcoke, mainly imported from the Gulf of Mexico.

In total, the association’s strategy entails Euro4.2bn of new investments andEuro1.4m/yr of extra operating costs across the industry.

Italy: The Italian cement and concrete association Federbeton says that investments in sustainable technologies in domestic cement production totalled Euro110m between 2017 and 2019, reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 311,000t in 2019 alone, up by 12% year-on-year from 278,000t in 2018. An increased alternative fuel (AF) substitution rate of 6.7% in 2019 contributed to the reduction, up by 0.7% from 6.6%. Producers’ full-year alternative fuels consumption was 1.6Mt.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim says it will double the use of waste derived fuels in production by 2030 from a baseline set in 2018. It made the announcement as it signed the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Business Ambition for 1.5°C pledge, which commits it to net-zero carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 2050. It says it is the first building materials company to join the pledge.

The company has committed itself to a 20% reduction in its CO₂ intensity between 2018 and 2030. It says that over the period it will: “accelerate the use of low-carbon and carbon-neutral products such as ECOPact and Susteno, recycle 100Mt of waste and by-products for energy and raw materials, scale up the use of calcined clay and develop novel cements with new binders, reach net CO₂ emissions 475kg/t of cementitious material and open and operate its first net-zero CO₂ cement plant.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jan Jenisch said, “I believe in building a world that works for people and the planet. That’s why we are reinventing how the world builds today to make it greener with low-carbon and circular solutions. I am very excited to be working with SBTi, taking a rigorous science-based approach to shape our net zero roadmap and accelerating our efforts to substantially lower our CO₂ footprint. I will not stop pushing the boundaries to lead the way in green construction.”

France: Vicat has showcased Vicat Circulère, its construction waste management plant, at the Pollutec environmental exhibition in Lyon. The building materials producer has set itself the goal of no longer using fossil fuels at its cement plants by 2023. At present it has an alternative fuels substitution rate of over 50% at its cement plants in France.