Germany: HeidelbergCement has published its sustainability report for 2019. The building materials producer says it decreased its specific gross CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement by 0.9% year-on-year to 622kg/t in 2019 from 628kg/t in 2018. Absolute net CO₂ emissions also fell, by 4.6% to 68.4Mt from 71.7Mt. Indirect CO₂ emission grew by 4.8% to 4.4Mt from 4.2Mt, though energy consumption in cement production fell by 3.5% to 364,000TJ from 377,000TJ.

HeidelbergCement chair Dominic von Achten said, “We have declared our express commitment to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, we will continue to intensify our commitment to tackling climate change in the coming years.”

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Research Network (Innovandi) has launched a week of online workshops dedicated to lowering cement and concrete’s carbon footprint through research and development, with the participation of 30 companies and 40 scientific institutions.

Global Cement and Concrete Association cement director Claude Loréa said, “Cement is fundamentally important to our world today and will play a crucial role in building the sustainable world of tomorrow. It is therefore critical to support and accelerate the breakthrough processes and products that will improve sustainability and decrease carbon emissions. The Innovandi Kick-off Week offers a platform for leaders from across the world of cement and concrete to collaborate with academic institutions and define the cutting-edge research that will address these challenges and help us create a better future.”

Canada/US: Lehigh Cement says that it has adopted the latest North American Product Category Rules (PCR) across its entire product range.

Lehigh Hanson Canada regional cement sales and logistics vice president Shawn McMillan said, “We have made it one of our top priorities to benchmark and lower our CO₂ emissions with ambitious targets. Much like food nutrition labels highlight calorific values, our plant and product-specific environmental product declarations (EPD) communicate the environmental impact through global warming potential (GWP) for cement in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. We intend to use the added product transparency to more effectively gain adoption for our lower carbon products. We have several research projects and studies on-going to continue to optimise the carbon impacts from cement and concrete.”

US: Cemex has announced that its De Zavala and Tyler cement terminals, both in Texas, have received the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star certification for energy efficiency. The De Zavala terminal reduced its energy intensity by 53% between June 2015 and June 2020, while the Tyler terminal reduced its intensity by 39% over the same period, both exceeding their five-year targets of a 10% reduction.

France: LafargeHolcim France has said that all bagged cement will now bear a 360Score CO₂ emissions reduction rating, “to allow traders, artisans and homebuilders to know the precise carbon impact of their cement.” The rating, between ’A’ and ’D,’ corresponds to the factor of CO₂ compared to CEM-I Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). ’A’ Class cement produces 75% – 100% less CO₂, while ’D’ class cement produces 0% – 25% less.

LafargeHolcim France chief executive officer (CEO) François Petry said, “By applying the 360Score rating scale to our bags of cements, we are continuing to implement our Lafarge 360 approach, which consists in supporting all builders to build in a more responsible manner.”

China: Huaxin Cement has announced that it burned 2.7t of seized opiates in its fuel mix at its Diwei cement plant in Chongqing. Representatives of the Chongqing Anti-Drug Committee, Public Service Bureau, Eco-Environmental Bureau and Procuratorate were in attendance. Huaxin Cement reports that the dangerous substances have been “safely disposed of.” The producer said that this is the largest single volume of drugs to have been combusted in a cement kiln. The plant previously burnt 1.22Mt of illicit substances in 2018.

Germany: Haver & Boecker and BillerudKorsnäs have published ten Sack Packaging Norms to provide a “common language” to correct “repeated, unnecessary errors which to lead to waste and loss of product performance.” BillerudKorsnäs Technical Service Director Mikael Peterson said, “If producers and users of paper bag packaging follow the recommendations and guidelines, and implement these norms in their supply chain - efficient and effective packaging manufacturing, filling, handling, storage and transport of the finished goods will be secured. As an industry we will reduce waste significantly, making a major contribution to saving our planet.”

Colombia: Cementos Argos Colombia has reported on its situation and shared its business outlook as it returns to full operations post-coronavirus lockdown. The company says that 1700 people are currently active in operations, with 910 working from home and 660 on furlough. In May 2020 it served 5300 customers, down by 74% year-on-year from 7210 in May 2019. Cement volumes fell by 41% and concrete volumes by 43%. 44 of Cementos Argos Colombia’s 58 concrete plants were operational, and 73 of its 92 work centres.

During the lockdown period the company completed over 100 new infrastructure project supply contracts. Cementos Argos Colombia regional vice president Tomás Restrepo said, “We are confident in a positive future, in our resilience, in the ability to face challenges and that we have extraordinary talent who are aware of the importance of self-care and who work every day on good ideas to continue to be the best allies of our client.”

Tunisia: Carthage Cement has announced the successful shipment of 4100t of cement from its 2Mt/yr integrated Jebel Ressas plant in Ben Arous Governorate. The shipment was postponed from March 2020 due to the coronavirus lockdown in Italy and Tunisia and is to be the first of a number of shipments of a total of 250,000t of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), in accordance with Carthage Cement’s contract with a local construction firm.

Sweden: The Swedish Transport Association (ST) has arranged with Cementa for the supply of ‘climate-enhanced’ cement for the completion of an expansion of the Malmö – Lund Southern Main Line between Arlöv and Lund, including an underground section and three new stations. The company first concluded the contract with ST in 2017 and has since supplied normal Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to the major infrastructure project. It has now agreed with the client to switch to ‘climate-enhanced’ OPC produced at its 2.5Mt/yr integrated Slite cement plant, which burns over 60% alternative fuels in its kiln lines, for production of the remaining 65,000m³ of concrete required for the project. Cementa southern district manager Jenny Larsson said, “This project is in line with Cementa’s climate-enhanced vision for infrastructure.”