In discussion: Dinah McLeod, GCCA

The Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA), founded in early 2018, released its 2050 Climate Ambition in September 2020. The ambition statement outlines the aims of the industry to transition to a low-carbon future and produce CO₂-neutral concrete by 2050. It represents the first time that the industry has come together to jointly state such a bold and wide-ranging set of sustainability targets. Its CEO Dinah McLeod recently took time out of her busy schedule to talk to Global Cement.

Global Cement (GC): Please summarise the key points of the GCCA’s 2050 Climate Ambition?

Dinah McLeod (DM): The GCCA represents 40% of the world’s cement producers, all of which want to highlight the fact that concrete is the primary sustainable material for our built environment, both for today and tomorrow. As GCCA CEO, a major part of my job is to ensure that the organisation itself is seen as the industry standard for sustainability. This means that, when a cement producer joins the GCCA, it is publicly committing to sustainability in a very tangible way.

The GCCA’s team collaborates very closely with the experts at our member companies to develop approaches and guidelines, which, in September 2020, led to the publication of our 2050 Climate Ambition. This sets out the important aspiration that our members will make a significant contribution to a net zero world by producing carbon neutral concrete by 2050, the first time that the industry has come together to commit to such a bold target and aligning to global climate targets.

I only joined the GCCA in July 2020 and I find it really exciting to be leading an association that brings together such forward-thinking companies.

GC: How does the Climate Ambition rank among the GCCA’s achievements to date?

DM: The publication of the Climate Ambition is an extremely important step in the development of the GCCA. It sets our direction. We are now working full tilt to produce a full Roadmap that will plot the course towards CO₂-neutrality. We are aiming to publish this at the end of 2021.

Some of our other major achievements include the establishment of Innovandi, our research network that brings together the industry, academics and technology providers to collaborate on cement and concrete sustainability. It has really taken off like a rocket and now has 71 partners. It offers the opportunity for meaningful insights and results for all parties.

Indeed the GCCA is now starting to bring real value to its members across many aspects of their business aside from sustainability. Producers from Asia speak to those in Africa, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, everywhere within the context of our broad work programme. It’s fantastic to provide that platform and witness the effective interaction and collaboration.

We should also note that the GCCA has gained a strong international reputation in three short years since it was established. We have regular interactions with groups at the UN, the World Economic Forum and with policy-makers from around the world.

GC: Is the GCCA predominantly focused on cement or concrete?

DM: Our members are clinker producers and we act on their behalf. However, our focus extends across the entire life of the product, from the quarry at the cement plant, to concete production, and to the eventual use and reuse of the end structure. From a sustainability standpoint, I liken it to an electric vehicle. There’s no point judging its sustainability credentials as it leaves the factory. You have to consider the whole life-cycle of the product and how it performs across its whole life - concrete has amazing sustainability credentials.

GC: What are the key points of the 2050 Climate Ambition?

DM: When looking at the document, which I recommend your readers do, it is important to remember that the Climate Ambition is underpinned by a very detailed set of technical assumptions. I would say that strategically the first point is that concrete is the vital building material that has shaped our modern world. It is also the vital sustainable building material of tomorrow’s world and will help build sustainable communities and provide resilience against the worst effects of climate change. It is absolutely vital, for example, to the conversion to renewable power generation, be it in a hydroelectric dam or the foundations for an offshore wind turbine.

Secondly, the document highlights that cement and concrete are hard-to-abate industries, albeit ones that are now much more sustainable than 30 years ago. We recognise that the industry needs to do more, so the document commits us to produce CO₂-neutral concrete by 2050.

Thirdly, the Climate Ambition does not shy away from the fact that achieving this will be a significant challenge. It will take all of the sector’s collective research, innovation and investment coupled to contributions from other industries and, crucially, policymakers, to help ensure we hit the target. We are totally committed to it, though. There is no alternative.

GC: The document highlights that the GCCA will foster developments in benchmarking, innovation, best practice, knowledge-sharing and CO₂ measurement. How will it do this in practice?

DM: I’d like to emphasise, firstly, that each of those five areas is equally important. It is our members that will conduct their own research into these areas in collaboration with each other, where possible, and with those outside of the sector. The GCCA’s role is to coordinate the efforts into mutually-beneficial directions. We have regular contact with around 200 partners and experts in the industry and draw on the depth and breadth they offer to help deliver our work programme and develop our policies and guidelines for the sector.

GC: How much of the route to a CO₂-neutral concrete industry relies on novel technologies, for example CO₂ capture?

DM: There are three main technical areas that we need to work within to get to this target, and CO₂ capture is going to be vital. However, the biggest challenge I see with this area is not technical feasibility, but ensuring policy can encourage and keep up with the development of the technology. There needs to be direction from governments and investment towards CO₂ capture. Whilst this is happening and we have great live projects and announcements from around the world, it is fair to say that we are not yet where we need to be.

Also vital will be lowering the CO₂ in the clinker production, by way of established technologies such as alternative fuels, waste heat recovery and enhanced automation. There are also exciting developments in electrified and solar-powered kiln technologies.

Once we have low-CO₂ clinker, we should also aim to reduce its use in the cement product by use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Many will be aware of research into ternary blends and other ultra-low clinker formulations.

From there, it is also crucial to look to reduce cement quantities in concrete while maintaining strength and the required performance benefits. Then, in an ideal world, the structures built using the concrete stand the test of time and, as required, are repurposed throughout their lifespans. Ultimately, we need to get society as a whole to look again at what happens when a building reaches the end of its life, to limit demolishing and, where necessary, ensure large parts are re-used. Where that’s not possible, we must ensure that the concrete is recycled. We also need to look at how to delay the point where the structure becomes unviable as long as possible so that concrete buildings last hundreds of years rather than being taken down after a few decades. Changing our current mindset on this will be a major challenge.

GC: Does the quest to extend the lifespan of buildings ultimately mean we will need less cement and concrete in the future?

DM: I would say this is possible, but you have to remember that we are taking these actions against a backdrop of continued urbanisation and population growth, especially in some developing regions where there is still much to be done towards providing essential infrastructure and attaining an enhanced quality of life. This means that even if concrete use is reduced in developed markets, we may still see a rise in demand for materials across the whole world. It would be great to imagine that the world will one day be ‘fully developed’ but there will still be significant need for maintenance and reconstruction, for example following natural disasters. Ultimately if we are producing CO₂-neutral concrete we will be able to support the requirements of the world without the CO₂ emissions.

GC: You referred to the need for direction from policymakers earlier. What would the GCCA most like to see to help with its CO₂-neutral aims?

DM: First of all, there are places around the world that have no policies for the low-CO₂ transition, so the best way that such governments can help in the first instance is a change in mindset. We have 15 policy areas that we would like to see addressed worldwide, but let me outline three of the priority policy areas that we would like to see.

The first, like I mentioned above, is CO₂ capture, use and storage. We need investment and policies that accelerate research, roll-out of projects and on the infrastructure and storage side where we need governments to really support, as well as incentivising lower-CO₂ cement production.

We also need sound waste processing policies so that appropriate materials can be diverted from landfill and utilised in cement kilns. It is tempting to say that ‘traditional levers’ like this have been pushed to their limits, but in many world regions even alternative fuels remain in their infancy. For this reason, the GCCA is concentrating considerable advocacy efforts in regions with underdeveloped waste management systems.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we have to effectively communicate my message from earlier, that concrete is the sustainable material of the future. At the moment everyone is talking about ‘building back better’ after the Covid-19 pandemic. Without concrete, I would argue that there can be almost no building back at all. There will be entire new cities in the future, there will be wind turbines, dams, sea defences built, even roads, all built with CO₂-neutral concrete.

GC: What role does automation have to play in the transition to a CO₂-neutral concrete sector?

DM: There’s no question that automation has a huge role to play in helping our members improve their process control, condition monitoring and logistics. These are areas in which they compete strongly with each other to improve their margins.

However, regarding the transition to a CO₂-neutral concrete industry, I would say that automation is possibly going to be a less significant lever than others. For our sector, the major benefits of artificial intelligence are more likely to come in building design applications. This will further optimise the mass of concrete used and help to bring out its thermal mass and recarbonation benefits.

GC: Will alternative cement chemistries have a role to play in the transition to a CO₂-neutral concrete industry?

DM: There has been significant research into other ways to produce binders, but I think it’s possible that they will primarily remain an academic pursuit. The use of calcium carbonates will remain central to our industry in the future because they are abundant, accessible and affordable in most parts of the world. Also, the work to optimise the sustainability of the existing process is well underway, through the use of alternative fuels, SCMs, and so on, but new chemistries around Portland clinker are being developed,
for sure.

GC: How will the GCCA work with other industries to resolve existing CO₂ accounting issues, for example in areas surrounding SCMs like slag?

DM: It is a complex issue. The emissions do need to be accounted for in the right place. We cannot continue with a system that only looks at one part of the industrial puzzle, be it cement, steel or anything else. A whole-life approach is needed.

GC: Do you sense that the other industries are at a similar point as the GCCA in terms of resource efficiency and the low-CO₂ transition?

DM: We are ready to work with other sectors on a range of technical and legislative areas and certainly feel that collaboration on these topics is the way forward. We need to work alongside other industries that share our interest in the rapid development of CO₂ ­capture and storage / utilisation, for example. We are starting to have a number of interesting discussions right now, including as one of the industry leads of the World Economic Forum’s Mission Possible Platform, which looks at routes to CO₂-neutrality across seven sectors.

GC: Do you see the GCCA working towards a CO₂-negative concrete industry in the long term?

DM: Before I answer, I would like to reiterate just how significant our members’ existing commitment to CO₂-neutrality truly is. It is monumental for the sector and speaks to its long-term outlook on the industry. If everything works from a technical standpoint, let’s say we do indeed capture, utilise or store all our CO₂ emissions, it could indeed be that we are able to deliver a CO₂-negative industry, but that would be in the distant future.

GC: Dinah McLeod, thank you for your insights.

DM: You are very welcome indeed. It has been great to speak with your expert readers!