The world’s largest cement maker, LafargeHolcim, has announced a range of targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its business before 2030. Those targets are that, by 2030, the company will:

• Accelerate the use of low-carbon and carbon-neutral products such as ECOPact and Susteno
• Recycle 100 million tonnes of waste and byproducts for energy and raw materials
• Scale up the use of calcined clay and develop novel cements with new binders
• Double waste-derived fuels in production to reach 37%
• Reach 475 kg net CO₂ per ton of cementitious material (net CO₂/t.cem)
• Operate its first net zero CO₂ cement production facility.

Scope 1 (from direct activities) and Scope 2 emissions (those embodied in the products consumed, and/or from the direct activities of the use of LafargeHolcim’s products) are to be reduced by 21% per mass of cement produced by 2030 from a 2018 basis, meaning the proposed reductions are further to reductions already achieved. The company is also to start to examine reducing Scope 3 emissions, those that come about in a more indirect way to Scope 2 emissions, for instance from the transportation of the products used. The ambitious and pioneering goals have been developed in conjunction with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a non-governmental organisation with representation from the World Wildlife Fund, the UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute, and the emissions reporting NGO CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project), amongst others. Of interest from a combustion point of view will be the increasing use of waste-derived fuels and the first net-zero cement production facility, with the company currently developing five net-zero pilot plants in Germany, Austria, Spain, USA and Canada. LafargeHolcim’s CEO, Jan Jenisch, said of the move “I believe in building a world that works for people and the planet. That’s why we are reinventing how the world builds today to make it greener with low-carbon and circular solutions…I will not stop pushing the boundaries to lead the way in green construction.”