As the most commonly used human-made resource on the planet, cement and concrete production accounts for approximately 6% of the world's CO2 emissions.¹ With demand rising and the global construction industry projected to reach $16 trillion USD by 2030, achieving carbon neutrality will require intentional actions from policymakers and industry partners to ensure low carbon construction materials enter the marketplace.

Seeking to develop and strengthen sustainable trade between the European Union and United States, the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) sponsored a stakeholder listening event on January 31, 2024, where representatives from the private sector shared their perspectives on a range of industry trading topics to inform the Transatlantic Initiative for Sustainable Trade (TIST) Program.

Trade channels between the EU and U.S. for articles of cement, concrete, and aggregates already exist today with total bilateral trade flows worth several hundred million (EUR and USD). Efforts in reducing barriers to trade must focus on green, low-carbon products to grow the global market for low-carbon cement. Reducing the barriers to trade could be a significant factor in growing the low carbon cement and concrete global market.

A Transatlantic Conversation

At the event, industry and policy experts discussed barriers to adopt and trade low carbon cement during the stakeholder session titled Creating a Marketplace for Green Cements and Concrete on both sides of the Atlantic, moderated by NIBS Chief Resilience Officer and Head of Engineering Dr. Jiqiu Yuan, Environmental Coalition on Standards Director Justin Wilkes, and NIBS Project Manager Sara Barrett.

Below are the outcomes from the conversation, including short-term opportunities and long-term policy-based calls for action.²

Short-term opportunities have the capability of reducing 30% of emissions by 2030.

Industry Partners

1. Shift to using performance-based standards and specifications for cement and concrete.

   New material certifications are lacking, and low carbon alternatives are not included in construction projects because they fail to meet prescriptive specification requirements centered on the material’s physical and chemical composition. Performance-based standards and specifications that meet industry accepted strength and durability requirements instead of prescribing composition for cement and concrete would allow for new and alternative materials to compete with existing solutions should be adopted. This will also allow for the development of low carbon concrete mixture proportions through the increased use of recycled materials.

2. De-risk the use of low-carbon materials through pilot and demonstration projects.

   Implementation plans at small scales are required to switch conventional practices to new and low-carbon materials. Public and private sectors can learn about the advantages and disadvantages of low-carbon materials through small-scale implementations, and then identify how these materials can be used on a large scale in both the short and long run.

3. Continue to develop certification and testing protocols of new and novel technologies to increase adoption and assurance of quality, learning from other markets.

   Lack of materials specifications and associated quality assurance tests can be a barrier to adoption of new construction materials. Leadership from standards organizations and testing programs would benefit both owner representatives and design professionals who want to provide reliable low carbon options. Construction material testing on projects conducted in accordance with standards can help reduce overdesign, further reducing embodied carbon within standard concrete mixes.

4. Utilize grant funding from the EPA to adopt embodied carbon reporting standards through the Inflation Reduction Act.

   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is creating frameworks for supporting businesses, states, tribes, and nonprofit organizations to develop reporting criteria for Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for construction materials and products. This initiative will provide assistance toward standardization reporting of embodied carbon emissions for products including cement and concrete using life cycle calculations. The EPA also is working on creating labels for construction materials and products to benchmark substantially lower levels of embodied GHG emissions.

Long-term recommendations enable low carbon market growth to achieve economies of scale.

Policy Makers

1. Enhance public procurement practices to initiate policies such as advanced purchase agreements to leverage demand-side levers and help new technologies scale.

   Without significant market demand, current low carbon solutions do not have the capacity to scale production. The public sector procures around 50% of the cement consumed in the US. If public procurement leads by example in not only requiring low carbon construction materials, but also helping seed the market, the industry will have successful case studies which could result in market demand from private sector building and infrastructure owners.

2. Incentivize production of low carbon cement and concrete with tax incentives.

   To grow the production of low carbon cement and concrete, tax incentive programs could be created. The goal of the programs would be to (1) aid small businesses in competing with more established, traditional technologies, and (2) incentivize larger firms to invest in research and development of low carbon alternatives.

3. Encourage stakeholders to develop consensus for international technical standards for embodied carbon to prevent trade barriers and minimize compliance costs.

   There is an urgent need for defining a harmonized framework for measuring the emissions of emissions intensive products such as cement. Moreover, consistent carbon emission reporting and benchmarking frameworks are necessary for establishing level playing field across borders when a region is developing carbon emission reduction goals. International partnerships or agreements should be promoted (such as UNIDO’s IDDI) on standards alignment and harmonization to ensure interoperable reporting and benchmarking standards while also providing a basis for correctly balancing taxes and tariffs on trading cement and concrete materials. Collaborations such as the NIST Concrete Embodied Carbon Consortium and similar European counterparts could be a part of ensuring the veracity of embodied carbon product declarations and avoiding ineffective strategies.

Education and Research Grantors

1. Prioritize investments in (1) standards for new low carbon products, (2) new technology certification and adoption (3) scale up and implementation of decarbonization technologies.

   Research grants and academic priorities can be leveraged to launch pilot programs, demonstration projects, advance standards development and performance testing needed to provide evidence of quality to owners, designers, and contractors for low-carbon cement and concrete. By increasing research and education efforts of innovative low carbon mixtures, designers, producers, contractors, and labs can specify, produce, construct, and test low carbon concrete with confidence because of improved quality, construction, and testing practices and field demonstrations.

The event was sponsored by the European commission and featured official addresses by the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, and Executive Vice President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager.

1 The value was estimated based on the 2019 global cement emissions of 2.34 GtCO2e (Source: https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/13/1791/2021/) and global GHG emissions of 41.64 GtCO2 (Source: https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions#global-co2-emissions-from-fossil-fuels-and-land-use-change). Calculation assumptions include an average total emissions of cement as 0.58 ton Co2e/ton cement, and recognizes fuel combustion emissions will be less than process emissions and the common usage of blended cement. (Source:  https://www.iea.org/energy-system/industry/cement#tracking) Traditional calculations consider a limited denominator scope of energy, cement, and steel.

2 As a result of a collaborative discussion, the following recommendations do not constitute a position paper or represent the views of individual organizations.

(Photo caption: Stakeholder Panel and Moderators at the Green Cement and Concrete Stakeholder Session, from left to right: ASTM International’s Director of Global Policy and International Trade Craig Updyke, Holcim US’s Head of Climate, ESG Policy and Government Affairs Melissa Carey, WAP Sustainability’s Sustainability Director Dr. Amlan Mukherjee, Justin Wilkes, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association’s Senior Vice President of Technical Services Dr. Karthik Obla, MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub’s Deputy Director Dr. Hessam Azarijafari, World Resources Institute’s Associate Dr. Ankita Gangotra, Sara Barrett, and Dr. Jiqiu Yuan)