Holcim’s ECOCycle technology named ‘Circularity Lighthouse’

Holcim’s ECOCycle circular technology has been named a “Circularity Lighthouse in the Built Environment”, in a joint initiative between McKinsey & Company and the World Economic Forum announced at this year’s annual meeting in Davos. 

The Circularity Lighthouse designation recognises pioneering solutions that demonstrate a novel, distinctive circularity approach, proven and substantial impact and value, with significant scale and maturity. Circularity in the built environment has the potential to reduce upfront carbon emissions by up to 75%, according to McKinsey research. 

Nollaig Forrest, Holcim’s chief sustainability officer, said: “Circularity is a game changer to decarbonise building at scale. At Holcim we are operating over 100 ECOCycle recycling centres globally to drive circular construction. With our advanced recycling of construction demolition materials, we can already reduce by up to 40% the CO2 footprint of cement. This is just the beginning; as we innovate and partner across the value chain to evolve building norms, we aim to accelerate the shift to circular construction in all metropolitan areas where we operate.” 

With its ECOCycle technology, Holcim can recycle up to 100% of construction demolition materials across a broad range of applications, from decarbonised raw materials in low-carbon cement formulation, to recycled aggregates in circular concrete. ECOCycle enables concrete, cement and aggregates to contain from 10% to 100% recycled construction demolition materials inside with no compromise in performance, whilst reducing their environmental footprint. 

As a global leader in recycling, circularity is at the core of Holcim’s decarbonisation journey. Building new from old, Holcim recycled nearly 7 million tonnes of construction demolition materials during 2022 into new building solutions. That represents over 1,000 truck loads of materials every day. Accelerating this pace, Holcim aims to recycle over 20 million tons of construction demolition materials by 2030 in Europe alone, by scaling up ECOCycle technology to reach 150 sites by 2030.