German industry agrees on low-carbon cement label to ramp up green material's market share

With a new label for low-carbon cement, Germany's industry aims to ramp up production and sales of the climate friendlier construction material, business daily Handelsblatt reported. Developed by the German Cement Works Association (VDZ), the so-called Cement Carbon Class should make cleaner cement easily recognisable and could be used in tenders for construction contracts to ramp up the market share of the lower carbon material.

The cement manufacturing process is inherently polluting, releasing carbon because of the chemical reactions that happen during production. Conventional production emits more than 800 kilograms of CO2 per tonne of cement. The only known pathway to bring the construction product's emissions close to zero is through carbon capture, although it is also possible to reduce emissions by changing the materials used.

The label categorises low-emissions cements with a carbon footprint between 100 and 500 kilograms of CO2 per tonne into classes, from A to D. The top "near zero" grade could only be used for cements with a carbon footprint of less than 100 kilograms per tonne, which can only be achieved with carbon capture technologies. So far, any cement with lower CO2 output than Portland cement – the most polluting and most widely used type – could in theory be labelled as sustainable.

The classification system follows a similar one for green steel, and is based on a definition for green cement that the economy ministry (BMWK) presented last year. "Sustainability labels are an important lever for creating transparency and incentives for climate friendly basic materials and products in the market," economy minister Robert Habeck said during the launch of two projects aimed at making the production of steel and cement more climate friendly.