Innovation: driving a more sustainable concrete future

Ian Riley, CEO, World Cement Association

We have become used to the idea that concrete has a large carbon footprint, but does that really have to be the case? Ian argues that we already know how to make concrete with much lower carbon footprint and significantly better resource efficiency. We are seeing innovation progress in 4 key areas: 

1. the use of different binder systems such as Hoffmann Green Cement; 

2. recycling of concrete into concrete rather than downcycling into fill; 

3. greater use of SCMs such as calcined clays and natural pozzolans; 

4. the use of new types of additive, such as graphene and carbon nano-tubes. 

Taken together these developments offer the prospect that for at least some applications we may be able to reach carbon neutrality or even net sequestration of CO2.