CCAA BUILDS ON SMARTCRETE CRC PARTNERSHIP AS NEW DECARBONISATION ENABLING PROJECTS ANNOUNCED

CCAA has welcomed the latest round of project announcements from the SmartCrete Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to develop low carbon cement and concrete solutions.

CCAA is a core industry partner of the SmartCrete CRC, which was established to facilitate research into improvements in the cost, productivity, and sustainability of concrete.

After a somewhat slow start, eight new projects have been initiated by the CRC that will support a more efficient and sustainable cement and concrete industry.

One of the first projects that Smartcrete supported was the development of the report - Decarbonisation Pathways for the Australian Cement and Concrete Sector¹. This report is the foundation document for our industry to achieve its ambition to deliver net zero carbon cement and concrete to Australian society by 2050.

The latest round of projects includes a project to establish a framework for the use of optimum low carbon concrete based on existing Transport for NSW (TfNSW) specifications. The scope of this project includes assessing the viability of new and innovative low carbon concrete systems in the framework.

The ‘Selecting Low Carbon Concrete for transport infrastructures - Now and future’ project has been promoted by TfNSW and CCAA as an important step in the acceptance of reducing embodied carbon in our transport infrastructure.

The Chief Executive Officer of CCAA, Ken Slattery says CCAA looks forward to working with TfNSW  and the University of Technology Sydney on what he says is an exciting and timely initiative.

“Australia’s transport infrastructure sector has long been very conservative when it comes to concrete technology and emissions reduction, so this initiative, supported by the Smartcrete CRC is an important step in support of our industry’s decarbonation objectives,” he says.

"The Australian cement and concrete industry’s ‘decarbonisation journey’ isn’t a new, having already reduced CO² emissions by 25 percent since 2000.

“But the industry recognises that much more needs to be done, including significant regulatory, structural, and behavioural changes across all parts of the cement and concrete value chain.  It is reassuring that our industry is supported by a partner such as the Smartcrete CRC to assist in that journey”.

^{1. The Decarbonisation Pathways for the Australian Cement and Concrete Sector Report was published by VDZ – a world-renowned research centre, providing practical and quality-oriented joint research and services in the field of cement and concrete.↩}