Familiar names dominate a new White House report on Federal Buy Clean Initiative and Department of Energy (DOE) Industrial Demonstration Program progress. The administration salutes six concrete or cement producers, CO2-mineralizing process developer CarbonCure Technologies, and four cementitious material startup companies for corporate or project-specific commitments outlined in response to Buy Clean and Industrial Demonstrations calls to action. Commitments referencing emissions reduction or global warming potential (GWP) metrics are based on National Ready Mixed Concrete Association 2022 regional benchmarks of CO2 kilograms per yard of concrete:
- Cemex USA pledges to supply concrete with a GWP reduction of at least 40 percent for a suite of demonstration projects.
- Clark Pacific, one of the West Coast’s top precast, prestressed producers, pledges to deliver five demonstration projects whose concrete elements have mix designs with cement contents 25 percent below limits for precast per Marin County and Santa Monica, Calif. low carbon concrete codes. “Clark Pacific has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to sustainable operations. This pledge marks another significant step toward reducing our carbon footprint and innovating to drive smarter, more efficient and sustainable construction,” says Chief Sustainability Officer Allan Bedwell.
- Heidelberg Materials, looking to 2030 metrics with 2020 baselines, pledges company-wide greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 25 percent and a 50 percent reduction at a single U.S. cement plant. It also commits to delivering a suite of commercial scale decarbonization demonstration projects
- National Ready Mixed Concrete Co., one of southern California’s top ready mixed operators, aims to pilot five innovative demonstration projects of near-zero emissions concrete by 2027. The producer has also announced the first limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) concrete in the Golden State. (LC3 is recognized for its potential to reduce the carbon factor of portland cement-only concrete mix designs by 40-50 percent.)
- Ozinga, the largest independent in ready mixed and a key Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin market player, is eyeing at least five demonstrations of concrete formulated with half the CO2 emissions factor typical of Great Lakes Region ready mixed orders. Those deliveries will follow the producer’s placement of four low-carbon mixes for a recent Open Compute Project Foundation demonstration hosted at the headquarters of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates—an undertaking also noted in the White House communique.
- Summit Materials is working with Amazon Web Services to scale up promising concrete decarbonization solutions, including material processors equipped to provide LC3 or lower-emission calcined clays. The teamwork fosters objectives of AWS, which stipulated reduced carbon concrete in the construction specifications of 36 data centers commencing or under way in 2023.
The White House report also spotlights these startup businesses and their processes or products: Sublime Systems, developer of a namesake, ASTM C1157-grade cement produced by an electrolysis method versus the pyroprocessing synonymous with portland cement clinker; C-Crete Technologies, granite- versus limestone-based concrete binder; Urban Mining Industries, Pozzotive ground glass pozzolan purveyor; and, Queens Carbon, developer of hydrothermal processing technology supporting carbon-neutral cement production.
The administration likewise recognizes the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund for its financial support of CarbonCure Technologies, whose carbon dioxide-sequestering method is widely adopted in North American ready mixed production, and Prometheus Materials, bio-cement material developer. The Fund supports Sublime Systems as well, and recently entered an agreement potentially leading to a contract for environmental attribute certificates emanating from Sublime Cement shipments.
The White House salute coincided with a Portland Cement Association Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality by 2050 progress report, timed with the document’s third anniversary. Both actions highlight deliverables and metrics underscoring how concrete and cement interests remain comfortably ahead of the carbon era curve.