Displaying items by tag: LafargeHolcim
LafargeHolcim celebrates Ebimpé Olympic stadium inauguration
07 October 2020Ivory Coast: LafargeHolcim Côte d'Ivoire says that it is proud to have contributed 60,000t of its Bélier Extra cement to the construction of the Ebimpé Olympic Stadium. Chief executive officer (CEO) Serge Gbotta said, “It is a real honour for all our teams to see their products accomplish international wonders. This is what we are working hard for. We are satisfied to see that, for its quality, Bélier Extra cement remains undeniably the first choice of construction and public works players.”
Nicknamed the ‘Arc de Triomphe,’ the Olympic Stadium will be the official home of the Ivory Coast national football team.
Philippines: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim Philippines says that it will “strengthen its commitment to development as a supporter of manufacturing and construction” on Mindenao, where it operates the Davao and Misamis Oriental cement plants, to help the island recover from the economic effects of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Sales senior vice president William Sumalinog said, “We are not slowing down at this time when the government has deemed it essential to continue upgrading infrastructure. Doing so not only raises the level of competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, but also shields the economy from the blows of the pandemic. We remain confident that we are well-equipped to deliver great value and support to builders working to improve the competitiveness of Mindanao’s economy and to all our stakeholders in the region who are united in their dreams of a better Mindanao."
Oswaldo Pereda appointed as director of LafargeHolcim España Villaluenga de la Sagra plant
30 September 2020Spain: LafargeHolcim España has appointed Oswaldo Pereda as the director of its integrated Villaluenga de la Sagra cement plant near Toledo. He was previously the director of the plant from 2010 to 2012. He succeeds Maruxa Suárez, who will work at the company’s Carboneras plant in Almería.
Pereda is a graduate in mechanical engineering from the Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela. He first worked for Venezolana de Cementos in 1987 before moving to Lafarge Venezuela in 1995. He has since worked in production and operation roles for Lafarge, Cementos Polpaico and LafargeHolcim in Spain, Brazil and Chile.
Holcim US announces new blended cements branding
28 September 2020US: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim US has rebranded its blended cement and supplementary cementitious materials range as Envirocore. Envirocore products include OneCem Portland limestone cement, MaxCem blended cement and NewCem slag cement.
The company noted that the partial substitution of cement with supplementary cementitious materials “not only results in more durable, high-performance concrete, but also lowers energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. CO2 emissions are reduced by approximately 800,000kg/t of clinker replaced.” It also called on consumers to “adopt solutions that lower carbon emissions.”
Holcim España launches the Carbon Challenge think tank
24 September 2020Spain: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim España has announced the launch of the Carbon Challenge, a think tank to promote CO2 emissions research and reduction. The company says that the plan involves “the formation of various working groups in areas such as reducing process emissions, reducing the emission factor for fuels and changing cement content of concrete and investigating alternative additives.” This is part of its Ecological Transition strategy, in addition to its Euro20m carbon footprint reduction investments announced on 31 December 2019.
Sustainability and Health director Raúl Pérez said, “We have high expectations for this project. It is a laboratory of ideas that will allow us to add and share knowledge that materialises in concrete initiatives applied to our processes, products and solutions, all with a common denominator: anticipating the new European decarbonisation scenario with an established plan to be carbon neutral by 2050.”
The race to zero
23 September 2020Cemex last week. HeidelbergCement and LafargeHolcim this week. China yesterday. One can’t seem to move for major building materials companies (or their owners) issuing carbon neutral strategies at the moment. This week HeidelbergCement first launched its ‘Beyond 2020’ plan, a mixture of financial, portfolio and sustainability goals. Then, LafargeHolcim said that it had signed a pledge with Science-Based Targets (SBT) towards meeting intermediate targets by 2030. Last night, President Xi Jinping told the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York that China was aiming to hit peak emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
The timing of these various sustainability goals are directly or indirectly linked to Climate Week NYC, a notable annual event on the climate change calendar that is taking place at the moment. So it’s a good time for large-scale industrial CO2 emitters, like building material producers, to have something positive to say.
China’s announcement steals the limelight given that the country produces around half of the world’s cement and holds a higher share of clinker production capacity. Western media has pointed out the geopolitical implications of Xi’s statement that was delivered shortly after a speech by US president Donald Trump, a notable climate change sceptic. Xi’s speech didn’t contain any details so it may simply have been an attempt to demonstrate global leadership. Yet if the Chinese government makes a go of it, the effect could be profound. Data from the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) shows that the Chinese cement industry emitted an estimated 782Mt CO2 in 2018 compared to 1.50Gt CO2 from the cement industry globally and 37.1Gt CO2 from all human-related sources. In other words, the Chinese cement industry was responsible for 2% of all CO2 emissions in 2018. And this industry is mostly owned by a government that has just publicly declared a carbon neutral target.
In some ways the other announcements, by the western-based multinational building material companies, are even more radical since these producers are subject to market forces. These companies don’t have to do this. They also contain more specifics than Xi’s words so far.
HeidelbergCement says it has brought forward its CO2 emissions target for 2030 of 525kg CO2/t (specific net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious material) to 2025. That’s a 30% decrease from 752kg CO2/t in 1990. Its new goal for 2030 is below 500kg CO2/t. The main emission reduction methods it outlines include: increased use of alternative raw materials and fuels; increased use of secondary cementitious materials to reduce the clinker factor of cement; investment in plant efficiency and CO2 reduction at the plant level; and increased share of low-carbon concrete products.
Chart 1: HeidelbergCement’s path to net carbon zero concrete: Source: Leading the way to carbon neutrality, HeidelbergCement.
Chart 1 above outlines HeidelbergCement’s thinking post-2030 with further reductions to CO2 emissions mainly achieved through circular economy methods and different carbon capture techniques. Two points to hold in mind here. One: note the current uncertainty about which route will provide the biggest share of the reduction. Two: this chart considers concrete, not cement.
LafargeHolcim’s announcement was that it has joined Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C.’ It says that by doing so it has become the first global building materials company to sign the pledge with intermediate targets for 2030, validated by SBTi. This is slightly confusing given that other building materials companies have had different dealings with the SBT as it has worked towards its current scheme. Earlier this month, for example, we reported that Taiwan Cement had started an SBT project in 2019 and had some targets approved by the SBTi in June 2020. Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) said it was joining SBTi at the start of 2020 and HeidelbergCement reported its SBTi approved targets in mid-2019. Finally, India-based Dalmia Cement is also on the SBTi ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C’ list but it is a stretch to describe it as a ‘global’ company.
The core of LafargeHolcim’s statement is a further reduced target for CO2 intensity in cement of 475kg CO2/t by 2030. So far it’s decreased its CO2 intensity by around 23% to 516 kg CO2/t in 2019 from ~730kg CO2/t in 1990. There’s less looking ahead after 2030 compared to HeidelbergCement but the measures outlined until then include: more use of low-carbon and carbon-neutral products; increased use of alternative raw materials and fuels; doubling waste-derived fuels in production to reach 37%; greater use of calcined clay and developing novel cements with new binders; and operating the company’s first net zero CO2 cement production facility.
Many of the various networks and initiatives across the climate action community came together in June 2020 as part of the UN backed ‘Race To Zero Campaign,’ an attempt to align the disparate leading net zero initiatives ahead of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP), due to take place in November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. This swirl of different net zero schemes also partly explains the confusion over the different organisations backing sustainability targets that companies can sign up to. So it’s a good thing to see closer collaboration here.
More cynical readers will have latched on to president Xi’s opportunity to show up President Trump in the climate change action stakes. They may also prefer news stories about activist investors prompting change at shareholder-owned companies as they increase their portfolios or stories like Morgan Stanley’s announcement this week that it has a new commitment to reach net-zero financed emissions by 2050. If the investment bank actually means it and other financiers follow suit then the fiscal incentives for net zero draw closer and the rest should follow. Moneys talks… and hopefully CO2 stays buried in the ground.
For sustainability comparisons among the top global cement producers see the October 2020 issue of Global Cement Magazine
LafargeHolcim commits to net-zero CO2 emissions with 20% specific reduction by 2030
21 September 2020Switzerland: LafargeHolcim has 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. Additionally, the company has committed itself to a 20% reduction in its CO2 intensity between 2018 and 2030.
The company 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, double waste-derived fuels in production to reach 37%, 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.”
National Energy Technology Laboratory invests US$1.5m in LafargeHolcim CO2MENT project
18 September 2020US: LafargeHolcim says that Department of Energy institution National Energy Technology Laboratory has awarded US$1.5m of federal funding to the company’s CO2MENT Colorado project. The project aims to capture 2.0Mt/yr of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the company’s 1.9Mt/yr Portland cement plant in Florence, Colorado for sequestration underground by Occidental.
The group said, “With the successful completion of the initial scoping study in June 2020 and confirmation of Department Of Energy funding, the partnership has committed to the next project phase.”
PCA names Energy and Environment Award 2020 winners
18 September 2020US: The Portland Cement Association has announced the winners of the Energy Environment Awards 2020. Cementos Argos’ 1.1Mt/yr Harleyville, South Carolina cement plant won the Energy Efficiency Award “by reducing kiln specific heat consumption and increasing the utilisation of the new vertical cement mill,” while CRH subsidiary Ash Grove Cement’s 1.0Mt/yr Midlothian cement plant won the Environmental Performance Award for “operating a whole-tyre burning system utilising a first-in-the-US hot disk system supplied with whole tyres from a nearby tyre recycling company.” Other winners were GCC’s 0.9Mt/yr Odessa, Texas cement plant for Innovation, LafargeHolcim’s 2.2Mt/yr Holly Hill, South Carolina plant for Land Stewardship, Titan Cement's Roanoke Cement Troutville plant for Outreach and HeidelbergCement subsidiary Lehigh Hanson’s 3.2Mt/yr Union Bridge, Maryland plant for Overall Environmental Excellence.
PCA president and chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Ireland said, “America’s cement manufacturers continue to focus on researching and developing new and innovative ways to reduce environmental footprint. The companies receiving these awards are great examples of our industry’s commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency.”
Lafarge Zimbabwe and CBMI sign grinding plant contract
10 September 2020Zimbabwe: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge Zimbabwe and China National Building Materials (CNBM) subsidiary CBMI have announced the signing of a contract for the establishment of a 0.7Mt/yr-capacity grinding plant at the 0.5Mt/yr Manresa cement plant in Harare. CBMI executive director and general manager Tong Laigou said that, when completed, the plant “will significantly increase the market occupation rate, competition and influence power of Lafarge Zimbabwe, and will also ease the cement supply tension in the country.”