Monday 11 March 2019

Concrete: ‘the most destructive material on Earth’

LafargeHolcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries – is the largest cement producer in the world.


Aggregate Industries is now a cement producer in its own right too, and loves the sight of concrete:









The problem for AI, and the rest of us, is that all this concrete comes at a price – an environmental price. The Guardian recently ran a series of articles – Guardian Concrete Week – warning us of "the shocking impact of concrete on the modern world":



Given that the production of every tonne of cement (a key component of concrete) releases a tonne of CO2, it's hardly surprising that:
Nearly 6% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 8% of the world’s, are now sourced from cement production.

Industry leaders are now embarrassed, aware that they are in danger of being financially penalised and tarred as climate laggards who refuse to change in the face of the climate emergency. They well know that not only is it quite possible to build most structures safely without cement, but their own research has shown that green, cement-like products using recycled byproducts which are just as strong can be made from other industries, such as steel slag, fly ash from coal-fired facilities or some types of clay. Instead they trust that nascent technologies like carbon capture and storage which could allow emissions to be buried will come on stream, and that more efficient plant will reduce cement emissions by as much as 20-25%...
But technological change will not alone drive cement emissions down fast enough. What is needed to speed up cuts is a global cement, or concrete tax. Only if the whole industry is forced to pay far more for the emissions of its product will companies shift to cleaner practices.
Apart from a cement or concrete tax, another article suggests what else can be done to reduce the destructive impact of concrete. Fortunately, new materials are also emerging – including cross-laminated timber to construct 'plyscrapers':
This material is lightweight but as strong as concrete and steel, and construction experts say it can be more versatile and faster to work with than concrete and steel – and even, it seems, quieter.

This week, a group of institutional investors coordinated by ShareAction, with over $1tn of assets under management, sent letters to company CEOs, including two large concrete firms, to ask them to set emissions targets in line with the Paris climate agreement.
Instead of just asking for disclosure of climate risks, these investors are asking for hard targets, and to sign up to a number of initiatives related to renewable electricity, energy productivity and electric vehicles.
The cement firms contacted include... LafargeHolcim (Switzerland).
According to ShareAction:
Cement has been on our radar for a while now. It was a priority sector agreed with the investor group because it is one of the most carbon-intensive industries.
The most severe, but least understood, impact of concrete is that it destroys natural infrastructure without replacing the ecological functions that humanity depends on for fertilisation, pollination, flood control, oxygen production and water purification.
As Jonathan Watts writes, our concrete slabs “entomb vast tracts of fertile soil, constipate rivers, choke habitats and – acting as a rock-hard second skin – desensitise us from what is happening outside our urban fortresses”.

He makes a powerful case for how concrete transforms a culture (a civilisation intertwined with nature) into an economy (a production unit obsessed by GDP statistics, which politicians can inflate for personal gain … simply by pouring more concrete).
Concrete-hungry HS2 and Hinckley are two obvious examples in the UK.

What does LafargeHolcim say? According to the company's US CEO:
As this industry is responsible for having such a large impact on our world, LafargeHolcim is always focused on making sure that the products and services that we provide are sustainable for the future.
We must transform the way we operate to become more innovative and mindful of the use of resources and our impact on the environment.
If the unsustainable 2.5 million mile haulage plan for Straitgate is an example of LafargeHolcim transforming the way we operate – we're all in trouble.
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