New laws that create carbon ceilings for industries as part of the Government’s climate action bill are set to boost demand for cement that is produced with lower emissions, according to a key player in the market.
We’ve seen the benefits of it already. I’d like to see a real legal driver by 2022,” said Susan McGarry, managing director of Ireland Ecocem.
“That’s going to drive change in the industry. That’s going to drive the cement sector in Ireland to find alternatives to try and lower their emissions, to adopt our product.”
Ecocem manufactures ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), a byproduct from steel-making, which is essentially half as polluting as normal cement. It has been used to help build the Aviva Stadium and the Convention Centre Dublin, and the company is now eyeing the residential housing market.
“There’s movement happening here. This is going to go from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘have to have’,” said Ms McGarry.
Ecocem is telling its customers to make changes now, before the climate bill comes into law. One of its Galway-based customers, a cement block manufacturer, is already seeing demand for GGBS.
“He’s being asked for blocks all over the country – architects in Dublin are demanding blocks,” said Ms McGarry.
“It’s very much a partnership between us and the customers that are making that jump, to go out before anyone else.”
Ecocem has been manufacturing in Ireland since 2003, and has plants in France and the Netherlands that supply its low-carbon products across the UK and EU. The “legal drivers” have been in place for in other EU countries – particularly France and The Netherlands – for years, said Ms McGarry, and Ireland is finally catching up.
“Pretty much all of those markets have legal drivers for the use of low-carbon products. The private market is very experienced with low-carbon products. They demand them.”
The new law will create sector-specific carbon ceilings that will force change on the industry.
“That’s going to create a cost for carbon, that is going to penalise traditional products such as cement and they’re going to have to make adjustments to lower the carbon footprint of the product through substitutes like GGBS,” said Ms McGarry.
“If you replace 50pc of your traditional cement that you would use with 50pc GGBS you’re going to save up to about 49pc of your carbon emissions on that.”
Conor O’Riain, managing director, Europe, said Ecocem plans to release new products and technologies over the next few years that have the potential to halve the carbon footprint of the cement industry.
He said the new direct ferry shipping routes from France to Ireland in the wake of Brexit had helped cut the carbon footprint of cement imports from the company’s two French plants.
