Cement is omnipresent in modern life, serving as the key binder in concrete and mortar products. We find cement everywhere: in our roads, bridges, buildings. However, while cheap to produce, it comes at a high cost for the environment.

The billions of tonnes of cement made each year account for a staggering 8% of global CO2 emissions – more than the combined emissions of aviation, trucking, and shipping! Given that the global demand for cement will continue to rise, there is no alternative: we need to act. It is essential to rapidly decarbonise the production of cement.

Is it possible? How can it be done? In 2022, ECOS began to see success as a result of its work.

The detox starts with better standards

Standards strictly regulate which types of cement are allowed on the EU market. Today, these standards are recipe-based, which means they prescribe the composition and relative share of the different ingredients of the cement mixes, rather than focus on the properties of the final product.

Until now, the existing standard offering technical specifications on cement composition clearly favoured outdated polluting cements over the already existing lower-carbon alternatives. As a result, low-carbon cement types today make up a tiny fraction (less than 1%!) of the global cement market.

But there is good news too: new and more sustainable standards can open the door to many more cement types and alternative binders in the near future – an opportunity ECOS saw, and seized.

prEN197-6 – under a cryptic name, a ray of hope for the construction sector

 2022 saw the development of a new cement standard: prEN197-6. Its key objective is to increase the use of the so-called recycled concrete fines (RCFs).

Why is this good news? RCFs help reduce clinker consumption – and with it the overall negative environmental impact of cement.

Traditional cement production is extremely polluting – and the main culprit here is clinker, a crucial cement ingredient, whose production through heating limestone releases CO2 directly (up to 60%), while the energy for fuelling the kilns indirectly accounts for the remaining emissions (up to 40%).

There already exist different strategies allowing us to reduce the use of clinker and work towards decarbonising the sector, and one of them is recycling of minute concrete fines.

RCFS are tiny particles, derived from the demolition of concrete structures. Until recently, these particles were simply dismissed as by-products of little value, and the construction sector focused its recycling efforts on larger concrete fractions. New technologies, however, allow for RCFs to be turned into a high-quality cement ingredient, allowing to partly replace the extremely polluting traditional clinker. 

If clinker is our problem, and its substitution seems to be a viable solution, we need standards to allow companies to use the innovation. This is why ECOS pushed so heavily for the development of the prEN197-6 standard, which presents a high level of ambition in the degree to which recycled concrete fines will be allowed in different cement mixes. This is an important step in the direction of more circular and less carbon intensive building sector.

A dream team

We did not get there on our own. Recognising the importance of joining forces across a number of countries, we mobilised partners in Belgium, Sweden, France, Portugal, Denmark and Germany, facilitating their involvement in their national standards bodies. This, in turn, ensured that our position was represented in various countries, giving it much greater influence in the Technical Committee that developed the new cement standard.

Our practical approach ensured a constructive dialogue both at national and European level, and within the different national standardisation bodies, successfully creating momentum and pressure to bring forward an ambitious standard.

 A good step – but more is urgently needed

The work is not done yet – the ‘pr’ in prEN197-6 means that the standard still needs to receive a final approval of the CEN technical committee in charge. And when this happens – it will be a step towards greener cements.

However, even at that point the work will be far from finished: in order to meet our 2050 climate goals, we should target the greatest possible uptake of alternative low carbon cement and concrete solutions, and this can only be done by transforming the sector through environmentally ambitious standards and policies.

Time to end, once and for all, our addiction to polluting clinkers, and finally set course for a Paris-compliant cement and concrete industry. From Portland to Paris – ECOS will be there every step of the way.