Carbon footprint evaluation for precast plants
The leading precast concrete technology supplier Elematic, together with Sweco, has released a carbon footprint evaluation service to help precast plants measure their carbon footprint. The service helps precast plants move their operations towards low-carbon production and succeed in an industry where the importance of low-carbon production and sustainable operations is increasing. Measuring a plant’s carbon footprint is the first step to low-carbon element production. To determine the carbon footprint of a construction product, the carbon footprint of the production process must be known: including the emission effects of the energy and raw materials used and the footprint of single manufactured concrete elements used.
The report helps identify the most effective ways to reduce carbon emission
The benefit of the report, the result of service, which is based on an extensive data collection and study developed and provided by Sweco, is to see where and how the plant’s overall carbon footprint is made up. The report identifies which issues are significant and whether it would be worthwhile to invest in reducing the carbon footprint of own operations, purchased raw materials and services or, for example, purchased energy. The report provides a basis to plan how to make the plant and products low-carbon and to assess what kind of investments pursuing carbon neutrality would require, and how to prioritize between them. “Our target is to help precast plants to improve their environmental performance by offering a carbon footprint calculation as part of our services,” says Mats Jungar, CEO, Elematic. “Companies that are able to offer sustainable and low-carbon solutions to the market will also have the best chance of succeeding in the future.”
Reducing carbon footprint of concrete construction
The use of raw materials plays a key role in precast plants. The cement industry is evolving in a more sustainable direction all the time, but there is much room for improvement in reducing their carbon footprint. Elematic is also participating the LOIKKA project in Finland, a joint venture by Betoniteollisuus ry and Aalto University. The project aims to halve the current level of carbon dioxide emissions from concrete construction, which means reducing emissions by more than 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is about one percent of Finland‘s total emissions. ”As a leading supplier of precast concrete technology, we want to be a forerunner also in environmentally sustainable solutions. The aim is to both develop our own know-how in this field as well as find effective methods to cut down CO² emissions of the precast industry in co-operation with our customers,” Jungar states.
