The world needs smart, sustainable and resilient infrastructure but challenges like climate change and limited resources mean that the production and use of heavy building materials must evolve.

Ready-mixed concrete is the most widely used building material in the world and is essential to society as a cornerstone of our built environment. It is flexible, versatile, durable and strong, and is used in a wide variety of applications including housing, commercial buildings, road construction and major infrastructure projects such as bridges, tunnels and airports as well as energy and water plants.

It also absorbs CO₂ throughout its life and is 100 per cent recyclable, contributing significantly to the circular economy and providing materials with lower embodied carbon.

However, cement is a vital ingredient in concrete but its production is carbon intensive, and it is estimated that approximately seven per cent of global CO₂ emissions arise from its manufacture.

As a result, our cement business is the source of more than 90 per cent of our CO₂ emissions and a key focus in our decarbonisation plan. Around 70 per cent of these emissions arise from the chemical reactions that take place during production, so cannot be reduced by using low carbon or renewable energy sources.

Carbon capture and storage

The only way to produce the net zero cement the UK needs to fulfil the Government’s commitment to delivering economic growth through construction is to capture and store these process emissions, removing them completely.

We are already a long way down the line of developing the UK’s first net zero cement works through our industry-leading carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at our Padeswood cement works in north Wales.

Once operational it would capture and store up to 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year from the existing cement works, preventing it from entering the atmosphere. Our proposals are currently going through planning and permitting. Subject to consenting and agreement of the Industrial Carbon Capture contract with the Government, construction will start in Q3 2025, and the plant will be operational in Q1 2029.

The Padeswood scheme is part of the HyNet North West decarbonisation cluster, a complex project which will capture CO₂ produced by several land-based industrial emitters. The emissions captured would be compressed and transported via underground pipeline to be stored safely and permanently in depleted gas fields a kilometre below Liverpool Bay.

Successful completion of the project would enable us to produce evoZero – the world’s first carbon captured net zero cement – as early as 2029.

evoZero is a potential gamechanger and sets new standards for sustainable building materials. It is already available through Heidelberg Materials’ Brevik plant in Norway and is helping the cement industry and wider construction sector on the pathway to decarbonisation.

evoZero is part of evoBuild, our global brand for lower carbon and circular cement, ready-mixed concrete, aggregates and asphalt products. All evoBuild products have clear sustainability credentials and must meet strict, clearly defined criteria.

Innovation-led strategy

Over the last couple of decades our approach to sustainability in the UK has moved from a compliance-driven mindset to a proactive, innovation-led strategy.

This transformation is evident in our updated UK sustainability commitments for 2030 and beyond. Our revised commitments reflect the Heidelberg Materials Group sustainability strategy but take key UK drivers into account, giving clear and measurable goals to help us build a more sustainable future.

They cover topics under four headings – net zero, circular and resilient, safe and inclusive and nature positive – and link with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to demonstrate that we are in line with global action.

Our 2030 sustainability commitments are at the heart of everything we do, providing a stepping stone to achieving our 2050 net zero ambitions. In practice, this means we are driving the decarbonisation of our sector, promoting the circular economy, ensuring the health and wellbeing of our employees and communities, and contributing to a nature-positive world through biodiversity and sustainable water management.

We have made significant investment in new plant and equipment to improve efficiency and reduce production emissions. We have also increased the use of alternative fuels using waste paper and plastics, waste liquid fuels, biomass and other fuel types to power our cement kilns.

In addition to our CCS project at Padeswood, we are involved in a number of other industry-leading initiatives. For example:

• We successfully completed a world-first demonstration using hydrogen as part of a net zero fuel mix used to operate the cement kiln at our Ribblesdale works in Lancashire.
• Another type of CCS technology, C-Capture, is being trialled at our Ketton works in Rutland. This uses a solvent to selectively capture CO₂ and is one of the most energy-efficient post combustion carbon capture methodologies developed to date.
• We are trialling the use of nuclear-derived hydrogen to decarbonise asphalt production at our Criggion plant in mid Wales.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

We are also working hard to conserve natural materials, promote the circular economy and decarbonise our products. Our recycling business line, created in 2023, will allow us to recover construction and demolition waste, process it and reuse or recycle it to reduce the use of primary raw materials, which is crucial to reaching net zero.

It will also allow us to provide the most sustainable products to our customers through circularity and innovation to enable building more, with less.

All of these initiatives will help us reach our ambition to be a leader in sustainability and meet our commitment to decarbonising our business and supporting our customers to do the same, but decarbonising the built environment is a challenge that requires industry-wide collaboration and innovation.

The construction industry must work together to share best practices, develop common standards, and invest in joint research and development projects. For example, working together on CCS projects, developing lower carbon materials, and promoting the use of recycled building materials can significantly accelerate progress.

Additionally, engaging with policymakers to remove regulatory barriers and create supportive frameworks and financial incentives is also crucial. This includes policies that encourage the use of recycled materials and promote the circular economy.

By working together, we can drive the transition to a more sustainable built environment and achieve our collective decarbonisation goals.