Last week marked 6 months that I have been working in the cement industry. The question that I’m asked again and again: ‘why cement?’

But explaining what I do and why is more difficult to explain than just an elevator pitch at a cocktail party. I thought it would be a good time to pull up and put a pen to paper about what drew me into the industry and some of my learnings so far. And in case anyone is interested in learning with me, I’ve decided to share it with you.

So Why Focus on Cement?

Concrete (the product of mixing cement + water) is the second most consumed resource on the planet (source). The built environment (human made structures, features and facilities) globally consumes almost 50% of the materials produced each year (source) and now weighs more than all life on earth combined (source). But while there is no question that the built environment, and cement more specifically, is a vital ingredient in the way we live our modern lives, it also comprises 7-8% of total global emissions, by some estimates (source). And if it was a country, having emitted 2.8bn tonnes of Co2 in 2023, cement would be the third largest national emitter after China and India (source).

To put this into perspective, the emissions impact of cement is 3 times those from the aviation industry (which emits 2.3% of global emissions) (source) and half of the entire meat and dairy industry (which is responsible for 14%) (source). That’s not to say that these are not also huge topics which demand significant exploration (they most certainly are!), it is just to provide a comparison to industries which are widely spoken about.

And unlike other highly-emissive industries (like transportation and energy), the share of cement-related emissions is steadily rising (~10% CAGR since 2015) and is expected to continue doing so, without any immediate action (source). In absence of any efforts to minimize cement usage in buildings, total global cement consumption is expected to be 20% higher than today by 2050 (source). More generally, industrial expansion has accounted for 45% of worldwide growth in GHG emissions over the past two decades (Lamb et al. 2021; IPCC 2022b). Due to the rise in building volume, carbon dioxide emissions from construction are on track to comprise almost 50% of the total emissions of new buildings by 2050 (source).

But rather than increase the sector’s emissions, we need to be working to reduce them. For example, in the IEA’s pathway toward a NZE Scenario, cement-related emissions must fall an average of 3% / year annually through 2030 (source). For this to occur, some dramatic industry changes will need to be made.

Why hasn’t anything been done about it?

Technically, the cement industry is a notoriously difficult one to decarbonize, often being categorized with steel, power and refining as ‘difficult to abate’. The primary reason for this is that the majority (50-60%) of cement emissions are process-related and are emitted due to the chemical reaction that occurs in the production of the material (as opposed to being released through the fossil fuel emissions associated with the energy of the process) (source). So even as renewable energy and more efficient kilns come to market, a majority of cement emissions can not be avoided without a fundamental change in the process and materials used to produce cement.

Source: Laying the foundation for zero-carbon cement (McKinsey)

Commercially, the construction market has a complex stakeholder ecosystem and significant value chain consolidation, posing challenges for disruptors to penetrate. Along the construction value chain, there are many industry players who must be educated and ultimately convinced to adopt new technologies - including architects, engineers, building merchants, developers and building owners; in addition to the direct purchasers of cement: concrete producers. Globally, the top 10 cement companies produce >30% of global supply (source). In the most mature markets the consolidation is even more dramatic, with the top 10 US cement companies having produced >80% of the countries supply, for example (source). These large market players have long-standing relationships along the value chain, some even having parent or sister companies who are purchasers of their product.