Our parent company, Heidelberg Materials, has a strong track record in reducing CO2 emissions: by 2019, it had already achieved a 22 per cent reduction of the specific net CO2 emissions per tonne of cementitious material compared with 1990 levels. It was awarded a place on CDP's 2019 and 2020 Climate Change A-list and was also the first cement company to receive confirmation from Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to limit global warming to below 2°C.
In September 2020, Heidelberg Materials adopted a 'beyond 2020' strategy, with sustainability as one of six core areas, and it has committed to reduce net CO2 emissions per tonne of cement by 30 per cent by 2025 (based on 1990 figures) and will realise its vision of carbon neutral concrete by 2050.
These are ambitious targets but are based on a bottom-up road map, which has been built plant by plant, country by country, across 50 countries of operations.
A key part of this road map is carbon capture, use and storage; an area in which Heidelberg Materials is making significant progress. Work is underway on the first industrial-scale project at a cement production facility at its Brevik plant in Norway and Heidelberg Materials is now looking to create the world’s first carbon-neutral cement plant in Slite on the Swedish island of Gotland.
