Portland cement has been the default binder material in concrete for more than 100 years. The environmental impact of manufacturing portland cement is well understood and documented, and regulators impose strict requirements on all cement producers to monitor and report emissions.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the manufacture of portland cement accounts for 1.25% of U.S. CO2 emissions. The industry has made considerable progress since the 1970’s reducing cement production energy demand by 40%, but recognizes that more must be done. That’s why the Portland Cement Association (PCA), which represents the majority of America’s cement manufacturers, developed the Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality. The Roadmap establishes realistic goals and actions that will be required to achieve carbon neutrality across the entire cement-concrete-construction value chain by 2050—and hopefully sooner.
In this episode of The Precast Podcast, we discuss PCA’s Roadmap, tools available to practitioners today to lower the carbon footprint of concrete, and the opportunities for the precast concrete industry to engage on this exciting journey to carbon neutrality.
