Photo of Blue Circle Southern Cement factory near New Berrima, New South Wales, Australia, by WikiMedia Common contributor AYArktos
Portland cement is named for the area in England where it was first made almost three-hundred years ago, and is the standard ingredient used to create concrete around the world. Despite being a very useful building material that can be applied in a variety of ways without expensive technology, cement production is associated with carbon dioxide emissions, primarily from when the original limestone is decarbonized and from the massive amounts of fuel needed to fire up the kilns to make cement. Robert Hutchinson of the Rocky Mountain Institute writes an informative piece for GreenBiz on how the industry might change, and why:
The toughest climate challenges involve large global industries, with no good substitutes. One of these produces the material literally under our feet — concrete. Every year, each of us in the U.S. uses about one-third of a ton. Fast-growing developing countries use far more. Globally we produce over 4 billion metric tons of Portland cement per year — the key ingredient in concrete and responsible for the majority of its CO2 footprint — driving over 5 percent of total anthropomorphic CO2.
Organikos 