This new decarbonization tool is helping cement manufacturers to become greener and more efficient [Video]

Meeting the growing global demand for cement while shrinking the industry’s carbon footprint is one of the most significant challenges facing the construction and building materials sector today.

The world can’t live without cement, but also can’t ignore its high climate costs — cement production is responsible for about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — or be indifferent to the people, companies, and communities that rely on the industry for their livelihoods.

With two-thirds of the global population projected to live in cities by 2050, the demand for green, resilient, and climate-smart building materials will surge. Some promising new eco-friendly building materials, such as geopolymer cement made from industrial waste like fly ash or slag are in development, but they remain in early stages, are costly, and are years away from widespread scalability, particularly in emerging economies. That underscores the urgent need to decarbonize the production of existing …