Circular construction
As a society, we need to shift gears: from a linear “take-make-waste” economy to a circular “reduce-recycle-regenerate” one. As a company, we put circularity at the core of everything we do, from launching the world’s first cement with 20% recycled construction and demolition waste (CDW), to upcycling plastic bags in roofing systems.
Reduce
We are learning from cities at the forefront of circular living to scale up circular construction.
Cities are at the forefront of the low-carbon and circular construction transition. Public spending in construction reaches 30% of all spending. For instance, around 250,000 public entities across Europe engage in procurement for construction.
We are seeing great leadership in this field from cities that put circularity in their public project procurement strategies for public works. By evolving their building norms and standards they are also incentivizing the adoption of more circular solutions.
Through platforms such as Go Circular , the Circular Cities Barometer and Circular Explorer , Holcim is playing its part in driving more circular living.
Cities are at the forefront of the shift to a circular future. We expect 70% of the world population to be living in cities by 2050; around 2.5 billion people. This rapid urbanization means a real difference can be made by shifting from a linear "take-make-waste" economy to a circular "reduce-recycle-regenerate" one.
Circular cities are many things:
- Smart buildings and infrastructure
- Renewable energy
- Green mobility
- Recycling hubs that keep materials in use as long as possible and turn waste into a resource
- Sharing and leasing services; local and closed loop supply chains, and so much more.
DISCOVER THE CIRCULAR CITIES BAROMETER
Geocycle is Holcim's dedicated recycling business. The Geocycle brand maintains a global network of over 50 operations, forming one of the world’s leading providers of waste management services.
Recycle
We are a world leader in recycling.
We recycled 34 million tons of materials across our business in 2022, making us one of the world’s largest recyclers. Urban mining – recycling CDW – is a key priority for us in reaching our 2030 target.
Across our business we recycle CDW, plastics, waste from other industries, and more into new building solutions and sources of energy.
New, low-carbon building materials such as aggregates can be created from CDW. Our innovation teams are investigating ways to produce concrete made from 100% recarbonated, recycled rubble. These advances are putting Holcim at the leading edge of the industry as we move toward fully recycled, high-performance and low-carbon concrete.
Our Aggneo aggregates are processed from recycled concrete, and guarantee the highest standards of consistency, reliability and performance.
As well as being produced according to stringent quality control processes, our recycled aggregates use locally-sourced materials. Our solution therefore reduces reliance on landfill sites, reduces transport miles, and helps ensure that natural resources are not depleted unnecessarily.
Just like glass, concrete is infinitely recyclable. We are scaling up our capacity to recycle 100% of concrete-based CDW into our building materials. Our innovations range from advanced crushing technologies to extract the highest quality materials and ensure a clean separation of resources, to smart recycling hubs to collect, sort and deploy materials, all the way to digital technologies to map and manage material flows efficiently.
Our ECOPlanet range includes Susteno , the world’s first cement with 20% CDW inside.
Regenerate
We are helping to build cities that are cooler and cleaner, where people and nature can thrive together.
Cities are at the forefront of the shift to a circular economy, so we strive to enable the construction of tomorrow's greener, more sustainable and circular cities.
By bringing more nature into cities we can counter the urban heat island effect. Solutions such as Elevate’s green roofing systems enable urban forests to grow and helps lower the temperature in cities. Hydromedia permeable concrete is a water management system that also helps to reduce heat islands, as well as recycling rainwater.
Holcim is also contributing to marine ecosystem restoration with solutions like our bioactive concrete.
From Elevate’s green, cool and solar-enabling roofs to Malarkey Roofing Products, our roofing systems help reduce air pollution and enable more energy efficient buildings and healthier cities.
Hydromedia permeable concrete recharges groundwater, allowing urban forests to grow. It is also a solution that helps to limit the impact of heavy flooding.
Our bioactive concrete restores marine ecosystems. Tailor-made reef design and the concrete's special formula allows rapid colonization by diverse native marine animals and plants.
Supporting circular living
Circular construction in ACTION
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