Getting Ahead of the Curve On Decarbonisation and Sustainability

Bernie Napp – Concrete NZ, Sustainability & Policy Director

“Green” concrete is a global phenomenon and is making headway in Aotearoa New Zealand. Concrete NZ is on a mission to make this story compelling for all who use and regulate concrete.

In 2021 the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) produced a decarbonisation roadmap, titled Our Concrete Future. This document sets out seven levers for moving the global cement and concrete sector to net zero carbon by 2050.

Six years earlier the United Nations Organisation (UN) had published 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for nation states to create a better world. The SDGs include health and wellbeing, clean water, renewable and affordable energy, jobs and economic growth, industry and infrastructure, sustainable cities, responsible consumption, and climate action. All of which are relevant to concrete.

The SDGs and the GCCA work are a call to action for the New Zealand cement and concrete industry to accelerate advocacy and communications efforts around climate change. Conveying concrete’s sustainability credentials and its decarbonisation journey is a challenge fully embraced, however the task will be difficult as some inaccurate perceptions are long-standing.

For instance, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Building for Climate Change programme expressed a clear preference for timber over concrete in building and construction, which required Concrete NZ to balance in its submission.

Similarly, the Ministry for the Environment’s (MfE) draft National Adaptation Plan for climate change contained no reference to concrete in combatting sea level rise, preferring the creation of wetlands and “managed retreat”. Concrete NZ’s advocacy saw the final Plan include “sea walls” as a climate change adaptation option.

At the recent NZ Bridge Summit in Wellington, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency presented on building highway bridges out of timber, and asked if concrete would “lead to an over-reliance and bias in bridge construction”. This stands in contrast with KiwiRail’s replacing wooden railway bridges with concrete and steel structures.

To better influence the sustainability and climate change debate, Concrete NZ has taken an approach known as ESG – “environmental, social and corporate governance”.

WHAT IS ESG?
ESG concerns the material impacts, positive and negative, of a business or industry on people and the environment, and how the external world impacts on the business or industry. Organisations use sustainability reporting to disclose their impacts, and to guide improvements to their environmental (including carbon) and social footprint over time.

The ESG concept was coined in 2004, and since then its use has grown exponentially, particularly from 2018. It differs from earlier, voluntary approaches to sustainability, e.g., “triple bottom line” and “corporate social responsibility”. Rather, it is a response to external threats, risks and opportunities posed to businesses. These include government policymakers and regulators, financial markets, customers, communities and indigenous people, environmental NGOs, and people looking for rewarding careers.

ESG allows entities to deal with the inevitable tradeoffs between achieving profit and protecting the environment – methodically, transparently and effectively.

In the case of concrete, the industry has a positive and verifiable story to tell, one of rapidly decarbonising, and reducing its environmental footprint.

This supports Concrete NZ in promoting a collaborative, informed approach to debate, to create a positive vision for concrete. To that end, we are producing a decarbonisation Roadmap, and a Sustainability Report.

DECARBONISATION ROADMAP
In 2022 Concrete NZ commissioned Australasian consultancy thinkstep to develop a decarbonisation Roadmap, due for completion in early 2023. Concrete NZ is the project manager and co-ordinator of the project, being funded by ourselves, as well as by the MBIE and BRANZ.

Inspiration for the Roadmap comes from the progress industry has made to date. Between 2005 and 2018 it reduced CO₂ emissions by 15 percent, against a 13 percent volumetric increase in ready-mixed concrete production over that time. Thinkstep verified the data in early 2020, and is currently updating the figures.

This success led Concrete NZ, in consultation with members, to set emissions reduction targets of 30 percent by 2030, and net zero carbon by 2050.

The GCCA report identified several levers for CO₂ emissions reductions. Thinkstep is evaluating these for application in the New Zealand context. At this stage, lower-emissions kiln fuels, reducing clinker factor in cement, and partially replacing cement with supplementary cementitious materials are gaining traction. We envisage improvements also in concrete design and construction, and transport emissions.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
Concrete NZ is also leading the development of a pan-industry Sustainability Report, based on a materiality assessment of industry impacts on people and the environment. This was done in April 2021, consistent with an international standard, the Global Reporting Initiative.

The material topics Concrete NZ chose for sustainability reporting are: energy and emissions; waste and circular economy; freshwater; benefits to the built environment; health and safety; and socio-economic benefits.

Data collection is underway for the year to 30 June 2022, with many returns already received, and report completion expected in early 2023. Thinkstep is providing strategic advice, peer review, editing and design.

WHERE TO NEXT?
ESG is increasingly the must-do approach for businesses in a world of tightening regulation, and rising societal expectations of the private sector, including of the cement and concrete industry.

Many companies in our industry are already pursuing decarbonisation, obtaining Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), or are preparing their own sustainability reports.

Concrete NZ is playing our part, via the decarbonisation Roadmap and the Sustainability Report. We are inserting cement and concrete firmly into the sustainability conversation in New Zealand. Examples include implementation of the MfE’s Emissions Reduction Plan, MBIE’s Building for Climate Change programme, and Waka Kotahi work on updating concrete specifications for its Highway Structure Construction Guide. This last workstream is important to building Concrete NZ’s case for concrete roads and bridges.

Good information, communications, and engagement with government and other stakeholders are at the forefront of our work to enhance recognition of the cement and concrete industry’s fast-reducing carbon and environmental footprint, among designers, architects, builders, customers, regulators and policymakers.

Concrete has a bright future in a modern New Zealand as the construction material of choice for resilient buildings and infrastructure.