Sustainable products and service solutions

As a major player in the industry, Holcim has a role to contribute to sustainable products and building techniques, as demonstrated in our business operations and through the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. We are developing new solutions through product innovation and process innovation.

In terms of product innovation, we are developing environmentally friendly cementitious materials for specific applications. Examples include products with minimum carbon footprint combined with extended service life and concretes that reduce peak temperatures through water absorption or desorption. Additionally, we are developing materials to increase the durability and longevity of buildings and roads. We are also currently conducting detailed lifecycle assessments with government, academics and other partners.

With process innovation, through research and development in sustainable and energy efficient manufacturing, we are seeking technical solutions to the challenges ahead including the rising cost of electrical and thermal energy, ensuring their availability worldwide while also improving the emissions of cement kilns. Holcim's program aims to transform these challenges into opportunities for sustainable value creation across the Group. As part of this, we leverage the diversity of our Group companies to multiply good practice and ensure that innovations and solutions are systematically shared to create competitive advantage.

Innovative customer solutions are key to improving our own performance and that of our customers. We are providing solutions to meet the increased demand for concrete and cement while proactively engaging our customers to encourage demand for sustainable and eco-efficient products. This sometimes represents a challenge, as it takes time to build trust in new products. Our focus on substituting (and therefore reducing) clinker in cement with slag, fly ash, pozzolans and other minerals is highly effective in carbon reduction. By 2010, we had decreased the share of Ordinary Portland Cement to 23% of our product portfolio and increased the share of composite cements to 77%.

To make our business in aggregates and other construction materials more sustainable, we are taking greater steps to look for alternative materials and to increase the amount of recycled constituent we use in our products. Examples of alternatives to replace virgin aggregates include crushed glass in asphalt and stent (a by-product of china clay production) in concrete.

In the UK, Aggregate Industries has developed products and services that conform to sustainability criteria, ranging from recycled materials to sustainable drainage systems. These are now marketed under a dedicated symbol - Sustainable® - to communicate their strong credentials to customers.

Our Group company in the UK, Aggregate Industries, successfully bid to supply the aggregates and ready-mix concrete needed for the building of the 2012 Olympic Games venues. It ensured that the sustainable transport target was substantially exceeded in the bid, with over 90% of the aggregates to be supplied by either rail or barge. In addition, Aggregate Industries is confident that it will well exceed the Olympic Delivery Authorities aim of 25% for recycled aggregate materials delivered to the project. It will achieve this through its use of secondary aggregates from assets in Cornwall in England, as well as recycled glass and recycled concrete derived from demolition sites in London.

Concrete can be reclaimed during demolition operations and crushed into a substitute for virgin aggregate materials. Traditionally, recycled construction demolition waste (CDW) is used in road construction and substructures.

Substituting clinker in cement with mineral components, such as slag or fly ash, reduces both the fuel and raw materials required per tonne of cement produced.

Lowering the clinker factor through the use of such mineral components, is one of the best technically proven approaches for reducing CO₂ emissions in cement production, and this approach remains part of our CO₂ reduction strategy. With an average of 71.5% of clinker in cement in 2010, Holcim's clinker content is amongst the lowest in the industry.