Concrete is one of the world’s most widely used building materials. It is affordable, locally sourced, strong when combined with steel and highly durable - especially when enhanced with Sika products. However, concrete also has a notable environmental impact. It is the second most used substance on earth after water and it requires significant natural resources. Its key ingredient, cement, is responsible for around 8% of global CO₂ emissions and has an energy-intensive production process.
Why Does Sustainability in Concrete Matter?
Stricter regulations, including initiatives such as the European Green Deal, are pushing the construction industry to lower carbon emissions and increase recycling. However, meeting these new expectations brings major challenges for the concrete industry.
Today, three key sustainability issues define the future of concrete construction:
- Carbon Reduction: Addressing the issue of concrete’s carbon footprint due to cement, which is responsible for approximately 8% of global CO₂ emissions
- Resource Efficiency: Reducing the large quantities of raw materials that concrete consumes. Concrete is the second most used material on earth after water
- Productivity Increase: The construction industry has great potential to increase concrete production efficiency through optimising the ways of processing concrete
Three Main Challenges Addressed by Sika
Carbon Reduction
Taking the lead to reduce CO2 emissions
The production of cement, the main component in concrete, is responsible for approximately 8% of global carbon emissions.
Key factors for the future of the cement industry include: optimising quality cement production, trying to reduce the energy required per ton of cement produced, and using alternative raw materials in the concrete mix.
The cement industry is now facing two primary objectives: reduction of clinker and alternative material use. The reduction of clinker in cement production started many years ago. The search for new alternative components as part of the binder is already in progress and will surely continue for decades. These two goals will continue to be a big challenge in the coming decades, which require knowhow from all involved parties to reduce CO2 emissions.
Sika, as the global leading company in concrete admixtures and cement additives, is your partner in developing products supporting that challenge.
Three ways to cut CO2 emissions
Grinding aid cement additives help optimise energy use in cement production
Using cement additives that work as grinding aids helps reduce the attraction between fine particles during production. This effect helps avoid the coating of the mill interior and lower agglomeration, which results in an increase of productivity (t/h) at constant power (W).
In this way, the mill efficiency during cement production is improved, making considerable energy and CO2 emissions savings.
Sika's additives to enable CC and LC³ technology
By using calcined clay additives in the production of CC cement or LC3 (limestone calcined clay cement), it can possibly reduce the amount of clinker used per ton of cement and increase use of calcined clays (which require a lower burning temperature than traditional clinker).
In this way, a significant CO2 footprint reduction can be achieved, especially by the wide use of calcined clay in cement and concrete.
¹Source: Global Cement Review
Sika's concrete recycling process
Sika has developed an efficient process to separate and reuse the components of demolished concrete, while also capturing CO₂. The concrete is broken down into clean aggregates, sand and fine powder through a straightforward process that binds a significant amount of carbon.
With the Sika reCO₂ver method, concrete materials can be fully separated and reclaimed from old concrete. The process sequesters CO₂ and produces high-quality sand, gravel and powder that can be reused in future concrete production.
Resource Efficiency
Securing and protecting resources
Concrete is the most important construction material in the world. Each cubic meter of concrete needs approximately 900 kg of sand, 1,100 kg of coarse aggregates, 300 kg of cement and 180 litres of water.
A few possibilities to secure and protect resources in concrete construction include:
- optimise cement and water content in concrete
- open new sources of raw materials to be used for concrete
- reduce quantity of used concrete
Sika takes the lead to support customers in optimising concrete recipes and achieving specifiers' requirements. It is key to achieve a project's concrete requirement with the best possible performance-sustainable-cost ratio.
Three ways to help save resources
Sika® ViscoCrete® minimises water and optimises cement
Using Sika® ViscoCrete® admixtures in concrete production enhances flowability by reducing the amount of water needed in the mix. Its absorption characteristics allow for lower water content, resulting in a denser structure with less porosity.
As a result, concrete elements benefit from noticeably increased durability and improved mechanical performance.
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Sika admixtures can help maximise durability
Sika admixtures that minimise shrinkage, enhance watertightness and prevent unwanted reactions between aggregates, binders or aggressive water help maximise the durability of concrete.
By improving these key performance factors, it ensures that concrete structures become more resilient, long-lasting and sustainable.
Sika enables the use of alternative aggregates
With the Sika CODE concept, you can confidently use manufactured, recycled or crushed sands and aggregates. This approach provides a structured method for identifying solutions to common aggregate-related challenges.
In turn, it helps address the global shortage of high-quality natural aggregates and supports consistent, reliable concrete production across projects.
Productivity Increase
Effective and efficient concrete application
2,500 kg per cubic metre of concrete must be processed, transported, placed and cured to get the universal building material.
Whether through improvement of construction processes (e.g. SCC - self-compacting concrete), efficient use of energy (e.g. steam curing) or alternative construction methods (e.g. modular building), these approaches all serve to increase productivity on the construction site.
It is key for every partner in the value chain to make the most out of all concrete construction material in the most efficient way. Together with planners, concrete producers and contractors, Sika develops and realises concrete concepts to improve productivity while ensuring safe construction at the same time.
Three ways to boost productivity
SikaRapid® minimises concrete curing time
By using SikaRapid® admixtures, early strength development is significantly accelerated, allowing concrete to reach the required strength much faster. This supports shorter production cycles, faster construction progress and reduced heating requirements- which is particularly valuable during colder months.
As a result, the need for external energy is lowered, and overall curing efficiency throughout the construction process is greatly improved.
Lubricating admixtures improve the concrete flow in pipes
By incorporating specialised admixtures during concrete production, the mix gains enhanced lubrication properties that improve concrete flow under pressure in dense stream applications. This ensures consistent delivery, even when using processed aggregates which is a major advantage.
As a result, overall performance is increased while energy demand and material consumption are both reduced.
Sika ViscoFlow® secures requested workability time
By using Sika ViscoFlow® admixtures, concrete workability can be maintained for several hours without the need for additional retarders. This is particularly valuable for urban sites affected by heavy traffic or for projects in remote locations where long transport times are unavoidable.
This ensures the concrete quality remains consistent throughout transportation, with no need to add extra ingredients before placement.
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Sustainability and Sika
Sika is committed to sustainable development and takes this responsibility seriously by delivering products that support energy-efficient construction and environmentally conscious design. By choosing Sika solutions, customers are equipped to meet today’s sustainability demands with confidence.
Sika also provides product and system guidance that helps customers understand and address the evolving sustainability challenges within the concrete and cement industry.
