Displaying items by tag: Germany
Severin Weig appointed as head of Ciments du Maroc
10 January 2024Morocco: Ciments du Maroc has appointed Severin Weig as its chief executive officer with effect from 1 February 2024. He will succeed Matteo Rozzanigo in the post, who will become the president of the Northeast-North America Region of Heidelberg Materials Group.
Weig joined Heidelberg Materials in 2012 and has held various corporate treasury roles in Germany before becoming the group’s Director of Treasury, Insurance and Corporate Risk within its German organisation. He was also appointed as a member of the Advisory Council on Sustainable Finance of the German Federal Government in June 2022. Prior to working for Heidelberg Materials Weig held a number of positions in multinational investment banks.
Sergo Vashakidze appointed as Commercial Director Africa & Mediterranean-Western Asia at Heidelberg Materials
10 January 2024Germany: Heidelberg Materials has appointed Sergo Vashakidze as its Commercial Director Africa & Mediterranean-Western Asia. Vashakidze has worked for the group since 2011 in a variety of roles. He became the Deputy General Manager for RMC/AGG operations at HeidelbergCement Kazakhstan in 2014, that country’s Sales and Marketing Director Cement in 2016 and then the Area Commercial Director NEECA (Northern & Eastern Europe - Central Asia) based in Germany in 2021. Prior to this he worked in a variety of banking positions in Georgia and Germany.
Vashakidze holds an undergraduate degree in business administration from the Tbilisi State University and a master’s degree in economics and social studies from the University of Trier.
Germany: Ratings agency EcoVadis has awarded drives supplier Flender its Platinum medal for its performance across environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement metrics.
CEO Andreas Evertz said "With our commitment to sustainability and social responsibility, we have already achieved significant milestones. This excellent rating confirms our very good progress in the right direction. We are pleased with this but are also aware that there is still a long way to go. We aim to be pioneers in sustainability and inspire others - with full dedication and alongside our strong partners.”
Holcim Deutschland upgrades Beckum cement plant
09 January 2024Germany: Holcim Deutschland has announced for the ‘most extensive’ modernisation of its Beckum cement plant to date. Local press has reported that the modernisation will commence with the installation of a Euro20m pendulum cooler to replace the plant’s existing tube cooler. The new cooler will reduce the plant’s CO2 emissions and make separated CO2 better suited for capture, according to the producer. The Beckum cement plant is the site of an on-going carbon capture trial.
General manager Jan Kristof Peters said “We want to implement all construction work as quickly as possible and with as little noise pollution as possible for the neighbourhood. As in previous years, we ask for our neighbourhood’s understanding.”
Europe: Ireland CRH announced the completion of its divestment of its lime operations in the Czech Republic, Germany and Ireland on 4 January 2024. The deal marks the first phase of the group’s divestment of its entire European lime business, for US$1.1bn.
Heidelberg Materials Mineralik and UM Recycling start demolition and construction waste partnership
27 December 2023Germany: Heidelberg Materials Mineralik has started a partnership with UM Recycling to use demolition and construction waste in the production of cement and concrete in the greater Frankfurt Area. UM Recycling, a subsidiary of Antal Group, specialises in the disposal and recycling of construction waste and other materials.
George Antal, the owner of the Antal Group, said “After more than 15 years of active work in the dismantling industry, we are looking forward to working with our partner Heidelberg Materials to transform mineral waste into a product for use in concrete and cement, thereby making a valuable contribution to holistic building material recycling."
Heidelberg Materials operates several ready-mixed concrete plants around Frankfurt and runs a cement grinding plant at Mainz.
Heidelberg Materials secures funding for Geseke cement plant GeZero carbon capture project
18 December 2023Germany: The European Union Innovation Fund has awarded Heidelberg Materials Euro191m in funding to support its development of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain at Geseke cement plant in North Rhine-Westphalia. The planned project, called GeZero, involves the construction of an oxyfuel kiln, capture system and train transport infrastructure. Having received the funding, Heidelberg Materials and its partners will commence work in January 2024. They will subsequently scale the capture system to 700,000t/yr and build pipelines to transport CO2. Energy provider Wintershall Dea will receive the CO2 at its upcoming coastal hub for processing and storage below the North Sea.
Heidelberg Materials Germany general manager Christian Knell said “Together with our partners, we walk the talk and pave the way for CCS in Germany. GeZero will complement our global project portfolio with a truly unique approach. We are developing a promising novel solution for inland cement sites, with the intention to inspire industry peers and other emission-intensive sectors to follow.”
Global chief custainability officer Nicola Kimm said “The successful grant agreement demonstrates the relevance of GeZero for the decarbonisation of our sector, and the trust that European authorities place in our approach.”
World Cement Association welcomes Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative’s low-CO2 cement procurement commitments
14 December 2023UAE/UK: The World Cement Association has endorsed new commitments agreed upon by Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative (IDDI) member countries Canada, Germany, the UK and the US at the COP28 climate conference. The commitments include the development of time-bound low CO2 cement procurement plans. The WCA says that IDDI members’ collective leverage of national purchasing power will help to accelerate the decarbonisation of construction globally.
CEO Ian Riley said “The WCA has always emphasised the need for immediate and collaborative action between government and industry to make carbon-negative concrete a reality at scale. Creating demand for low-emission materials is essential for decarbonisation. Now is the moment to work together to make necessary progress this decade.”
Holcim wins two awards for Lägerdorf carbon capture project at COP28
13 December 2023Germany/UAE: Holcim has claimed two sustainability awards at the COP28 climate conference for its work on the Carbon2Business carbon capture project at its Lägerdorf cement plant in Germany. Holcim won a COP28 Presidency’s Energy Transition Changemaker award and the Outstanding Project award for Germany at the COP28 Mission Innovation Net-Zero Industries Awards. The COP28 Presidency Energy Transition Changemaker initiative fosters deployment of scalable innovations to accelerate decarbonisation. Holcim was among 39 winners across four different industries. Meanwhile, the Mission Innovation Net-Zero Industries Awards are the first global competition in recognition of projects that have revolutionised industries, disrupted the status quo and set new benchmarks for decarbonisation in energy intensive sectors.
Holcim’s chief sustainability officer Nollaig Forrest said “It's great to close COP28 with two awards for our Carbon2business project in Lägerdorf. This is just one of our six carbon capture, storage and utilisation projects in Europe enabling us to produce at least 8Mt/yr of fully net zero cement by 2030.” Forrest added “These awards recognise companies for their collaboration and innovation, and at COP28 Holcim continued to create momentum with our partners across the building value chain to accelerate decarbonisation.”
Update on cement at COP28
06 December 2023The Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) has been cheerleading at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai this week with the release of a progress report on the sector’s work towards reaching net zero by 2050. The headline figures are that net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious material fell by 23% in 2021 compared to 1990 based on Getting the Numbers Right (GNR) data. Energy efficiency improved by 19% and the fossil fuel component used by the cement sector has fallen to 80% from 98% in 1990. The GCCA has described 2020 - 2030 as the “decade to make it happen” and has set some targets to back this up. Its members intend to reduce CO2 emissions per tonne of cement by 20% by 2030 compared to 2020 levels and concrete CO2 emissions per m3 by 25% over the same time-frame.
The new developments for the cement sector at COP28 so far have been the launch of separate but apparently similar initiatives to help decarbonisation through coordination between nations. The Cement Breakthrough Agenda, backed by the government of Canada and other partners, follows the creation of the Breakthrough Agenda at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) whereby designated governments lead so-called ‘Priority Actions’ to decarbonise various sectors. The idea is to collaborate on measures such as policies, regulations and technologies to help reduce the cost of future investment in decarbonisation. The priority actions will be developed in 2023, worked towards in 2024 and then revised on a regular basis thereafter. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also launched the so-called ‘Climate Club’ on 1 December 2023 to help developing nations invest in technologies to decarbonise sectors such as cement and steel production. The intention is to set up the technical groundwork for a standardised calculation of CO2 intensity in selected products, such as cement and steel, set definitions on what net zero is for these sectors and then set up a platform to connect countries with funding and technical support from governments and the private sector. Neither the Cement Breakthrough Agenda nor the Climate Club has mentioned funding though.
Additionally, Holcim announced that it had become a founding member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s SMI Circularity Task Force. The group aims to promote the circular economy to the private and public sector. Holcim was keen to point out that it is already recycling nearly 7Mt/yr of construction and demolition waste, with a target of 10Mt/yr pencilled in by 2025.
Other groups are not as upbeat as the GCCA though. The Global Carbon Project, for example, has estimated in its annual Global Carbon Budget that global fossil CO2 emissions are set to rise by 1.4% year-on-year to 36.8Bnt in 2023. This figure includes both the CO2 released by cement production and the CO2 uptake from cement carbonation. Ongoing research by Robbie Andrew, a greenhouse gas emissions scientist at the CICERO Center for Climate Research in Norway and the Global Carbon Project, found that process emissions by the cement sector fell for the first time since 2015 in 2022, to reach 1.61Bnt. This decrease was most likely due to China’s falling cement production in 2022, stemming from a downturn in the local real estate sector. However, both the data from GCCA and the Global Carbon Project may be right simultaneously as they look at the emissions of the cement sector in different ways.
The GCCA’s job is to advocate for the cement and concrete sector and it is presenting itself well at COP28. Since its formation, it has set up roadmaps, encouraged collaboration and innovation, and is now reporting back on its progress. Net zero remains the goal by 2050, but the GCCA is being upfront about the role carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is expected to play after 2030 and the lack of any full-scale CCUS units so far. Yet it is tracking what has happened so far through the Green Cement Technology Tracker in conjunction with Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT).
As for the rest of COP28, various reports have been aired in the international press about whether the conference will call for a formal phase out of fossil fuels in some form or another. Whether it actually happens is another matter entirely, especially considering that the president of COP28 is the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and any eventual language would likely be vague. Yet the work by the GGCA and others has started to make the unthinkable a little more thinkable.