Can Concrete Innovations Achieve Net Zero by 2050?
Look around you and chances are you’ll see quite a bit of concrete – from residential properties and office buildings to parking lots and core infrastructure components around the globe, this material is EVERYWHERE. Concrete manufacturing accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions and the demand for cement worldwide is expected to increase by nearly 50% to 6.2 billion tons by 2050. Is this sustainable? I don’t think so! There’s got to be a way to strike a balance between structural integrity, efficiency, and new, more cost-effective sustainable materials.
While concrete is considered essential to new structures, about 90% of the emissions associated with this product come from the making of clinker, the primary strength-contributing agent of concrete. In fact, “in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement, the global concrete industry must reduce emissions by 16 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050 to stay within the 1.5°C [34.7° F] warming carbon budget.” (energypost.eu)
Automated design tools are already working toward these goals by helping structural engineers and architects prioritize concrete material efficiency and quickly explore more structural diversity. These engineering methods saved the New York Freedom Tower and the Shanghai Tower in China 40% and 24% of concrete use respectively.
Photo Credit: www.seattlespheres.com
“Reduce, reuse, and recycle” are still words to live by. When appropriate, concrete elements can be reused and integrated into new structures, ultimately reducing CO2 emissions as well. But there’s a caveat…building codes and market preferences must be amended to support the use of low-carbon concrete. Builders on a global scale must also consider cutting ready-mix concrete in favor of bulk cement, which can reduce cement waste by up to 30%. To do this, we must “invest in ready-mix plants and cement trucks” and spark a “considerable change in local market dynamics.” (energypost.eu)
While that strategy is in the works, there’s another short-term alternative: “selecting concrete with high clinker substitution rates can immediately reduce related carbon emissions of a traditional five-story building by 32 percent with less than a 0.5 percent increase in total construction cost. The ancient Roman Pantheon is constructed entirely of natural pozzolan cement while more modern examples include The Spheres in Seattle and the Iconic Tower in Cairo, both of which use Holcim’s low-carbon ECOPlanet cement. (energypost.eu)
Advocates for a net-zero future, including First Movers Coalition, ConcreteZero, Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative, and others, are demanding low-carbon concrete now. In my opinion, it will take a collaborative effort to make this happen. The demand must come before the supply, and everyone dedicated to sustainable development must take this into consideration when literally and figuratively building our future.
I invite you to read more about these efforts here and the United Nations Net Zero Coalition here.
Sources:
Skinner, Ben, and Radhika Lalit. “Concrete: 8% of Global Emissions and Rising. Which Innovations Can Achieve Net Zero by 2050?” EnergyPost.Eu, RMI.org, 24 Jan. 2023, https://energypost.eu/concrete-8-of-global-emissions-and-rising-which-innovations-can-achieve-net-zero-by-2050/.