The Global Cement and Concrete Association is an international industry association that was established in 2018. [1] as of 2018, it represented about 35% of the global industry for Cement and Concrete. [2] The association was formed, in part, because the industry wanted to participate in sustainable development conversations, participating in COP24 and COP25. [2] [3] The Organization published guidelines for sustainable cement in 2018. [4]
As of July 2020, GCCA reported 40 members including: [5]
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined.
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixed with fine aggregate produces mortar for masonry, or with sand and gravel, produces concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material in existence and is behind only water as the planet's most-consumed resource.
Skanska AB is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. It was established in 1887 as a concrete product manufacturer.
Cemento Cruz Azul is a cement company in Mexico. It was founded in 1881 by a British businessman named Henry Gibbon.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a CEO-led organization of over 225 international companies. The council is also connected to 60 national and regional business councils and partner organizations.
CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than 50 countries. In 2020 it was ranked as the 5th largest cement company in the world, at 87.09 million tonnes.
Green building refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building also refers to saving resources to the maximum extent, including energy saving, land saving, water saving, material saving, etc., during the whole life cycle of the building, protecting the environment and reducing pollution, providing people with healthy, comfortable and efficient use of space, and being in harmony with nature. Buildings that live in harmony; green building technology focuses on low consumption, high efficiency, economy, environmental protection, integration and optimization.’
TITAN Group is a Greek producer of cement and building materials, producing 27 million metric tons of cement a year and employing over 5,500 people.
Heidelberg Materials is a German multinational building materials company headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany. Formerly known as HeidelbergCement AG, the company has rebranded as Heidelberg Materials in September 2022. It is a DAX corporation and stands as one of the world's largest building materials companies. On 1 July 2016, HeidelbergCement AG completed the acquisition of a 45% shareholding in Italcementi. This acquisition made HeidelbergCement the number one producer of construction aggregates, the second-largest in cement and the third-largest in ready-mixed concrete worldwide. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, HeidelbergCement was ranked as the 678th -largest public company in the world.
Buzzi Unicem S.p.A. is an Italian company, quoted on the Borsa Italiana, which produces cement, ready-mix concrete, and construction aggregates. Its headquarters are in the town of Casale Monferrato which was once known as the Italian ‘cement capital’. Today it has subsidiaries, interests and operations in Italy, Luxembourg, Germany, Algeria and Eastern Europe as well as in North America.
Mining is the biggest contributor to Namibia's economy in terms of revenue. It accounts for 25% of the country's income. Its contribution to the gross domestic product is also very important and makes it one of the largest economic sectors of the country. Namibia produces diamonds, uranium, copper, magnesium, zinc, silver, gold, lead, semi-precious stones and industrial minerals. The majority of revenue comes from diamond mining. In 2014, Namibia was the fourth-largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa.
Grupo Argos S.A is a Colombian conglomerate with large investments in the cement and energy industries. Its cement company Argos has operations in Colombia, the United States, Panamá, Honduras and the Caribbean. Celsia, its energy company, owns hydro, thermal, and wind power generation plants in Colombia, Panamá, and Costa Rica and distributes energy to more than 500.000 customers in Colombia. Grupo Argos also has investments in port facilities and real estate in Colombia.
Loma Negra Companía Industrial Argentina S.A. is an Argentine manufacturer and the country's leading maker of cement, concrete, and lime. The company, established by businessman Alfredo Fortabat, also founded its own sports club, C.S.yD. Loma Negra three years later. After the passing of Alfredo Fortabat, his wife Amalia Lacroze took over the business.
Ponce Cement, Inc. was a cement and limestone manufacturer in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The company was located at the intersection of PR-123 and PR-500, in Barrio Magueyes. It was founded in 1941 by Antonio Ferré Bacallao, a Puerto Rican industrialist of Cuban origin. In 1963, the company became the first Puerto Rican company to go public and be listed in the New York Stock Exchange.
Lafarge is a French industrial company specialising in cement, construction aggregates, and concrete. It is the world's largest cement manufacturer. It was founded in 1833 by Joseph-Auguste Pavin de Lafarge and is a part of the Holcim Group.
Limestone Calcined Clay Cement (LC3) is a low-carbon cement developed by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Madras, and the Central University of Las Villas (Cuba). The cement can reduce carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) related to manufacturing by 30% as compared to ordinary Portland cement. In 2014, the LC3 project received 4 million CHF in Research and Development funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Franz-Josef Ulm is a structural engineer, an engineering scientist and a professor since 1999. He is Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Faculty Director of the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub@MIT). He is credited for discovering the nanogranular structure of Calcium-Silicate-Hydrates (C-S-H), the binding phase of concrete, and for the development of concepts of nanoengineering of concrete which combine advanced nanomechanics experiments with molecular simulation results. He speaks up for an environmental sustainable engineering, with "greener" concrete with lower CO2 footprint, to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete; to enhance concrete's resilience; and reduce its impact on global warming.
The 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP25, was the 25th United Nations Climate Change conference. It was held in Madrid, Spain, from 2 to 13 December 2019 under the presidency of the Chilean government. The conference incorporated the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 15th meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP15), and the second meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA2).
Concretene is a graphene-enhanced admixture for concrete that delivers savings on cost and CO2 emissions. The formulation has been developed by Nationwide Engineering Research & Development (NERD) in collaboration with The University of Manchester's Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC).