Just how important is innovation to helping essential, global industries like cement and concrete, decarbonise? Well, as one of the key pillars of the GCCA’s work, and a key lever in helping us to achieve our shared net zero goal, it is vital
Innovation will help us accelerate our transition, keeps us competitive and, importantly, help make the transition to net zero more cost-effective.
I recently attended a truly inspirational week in Lausanne, Switzerland, where we held the annual gathering of our Innovandi Global Cement & Concrete Research Network (GCCRN).
The 450-strong network brings together some of the brightest researchers and scientists from more than 40 of the world’s leading universities and academic institutions, together with business leaders from some of our industry’s biggest manufacturers and suppliers.
The event, also known as Spring Week, provides an important opportunity for our industrial and academic partners to meet face-to-face, from all parts of the world, to discuss key findings and future developments.
Academics, professors, postdocs, PhD students, industry scientists and innovation leaders all working together on ideas and research for decarbonising the world’s most used building materials – cement and concrete. I left Lausanne in total awe at their commitment, efforts and inspirational minds.
AI, innovative materials and carbon capture
Cement and concrete are essential materials, vital for modern infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, bridges, tunnels, roads and so much more.
But because they are so widely used, they currently account for 7% of the world’s CO2 emissions. And that’s why we are all committed to delivering on the GCCA – Global Cement & Concrete Association’s 2050 Net Zero Roadmap.
In Lausanne, I got to hear about progress on so many exciting decarbonisation research projects, including: the use of AI, new materials and processes for manufacturing cement, further development on the use of calcined clays, concrete recycling, the use of renewable energy and kiln electrification; and expansion of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technology.
University teams who took part in Spring Week come from every continent and included the renowned EPFL in Lausanne, who were our hosts, researchers from South East University and Wuhan University in China, the University of Toronto, the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, the University of Cape Town, Imperial College London, the University of São Paulo and many more.
To coincide with Spring Week, the GCCA has also launched a new online library of Innovandi GCCRN projects, which provides transparent tracking of research progress published. You can see for yourself what those bright minds I met in Lausanne are working on here.
The GCCRN is one of three GCCA world-class programmes focusing on innovation under our Innovandi brand.
Innovandi Open Challenge
Our Innovandi Open Challenge programme brings together tech start-ups and the world’s leading cement and concrete companies to work on our net zero mission.
Now in its third year, nearly 100 start-ups from around the world applied for this year’s programme, which is focusing on CCUS. The quality of those applications was so good that we ended up shortlisting a record 29 tech start-ups to pitch their ideas to our member companies.
We were also delighted to recently announce new partnerships between our member companies and tech start-ups to work together on the development of low carbon concrete as part of last year’s Innovandi Open Challenge programme.
EnviCore, based in Canada, Queens Carbon and Chement, both in the USA, and NeoCrete in New Zealand, were all shortlisted last year as part of Open Challenge 2. They have all now formed a partnership with at least five GCCA member companies and leading manufacturers, who will support and evaluate their technologies.
Their innovative ideas could help transform the way concrete is made, and significantly reduce its emissions. The four start-ups will now be given unique access to our members’ plants, labs, key networks, expertise and infrastructure to help accelerate the development of their technology.
Each start-up will also be showcasing their technologies and progress as part of a demo-day on 6 June, in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of the GCCA’s CEO & Leaders Conference.
The third part of our pioneering Innovandi programme, focused on innovation, is our Entrepreneur Network, which was launched last year, and open to start-ups interested in collaborating to support our industry’s net zero mission.
There’s still a long way to go, of course, if we are to succeed in delivering on our goal of net zero concrete, but there’s no doubt that the inspirational work of those involved in our Innovandi programmes, convinces me that through research, innovation and by working together, we will succeed in ending emissions and helping to stop global warming.
