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In this episode of the World Cement Podcast, Senior Editor David Bizley is joined by Álvaro Lorenz Global Director of Sustainability, Institutional Relations, Product Development, Engineering and Energy at Votorantim Cimentos.
Listen in as David and Álvaro explore Votorantim’s decarbonisation journey, exploring highlights, discussing milestones, and looking ahead to future developments.
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The World Cement podcast: a podcast series for professionals in the cement industry.
Hello everyone and welcome back to the World Cement Podcast, with me, David Bizley, Senior Editor of World Cement. In this episode, I'm joined by Álvaro Lorenz, Global Director of Sustainability, Institutional Relations, Product Development, Engineering and Energy at Votorantim Cimentos . And today, we're going to be exploring Votorantim's decarbonisation journey, checking in on the progress made, covering some highlights and looking to the future as well. I just wanted to take a moment to remind you to register for WorldCement. It's free of charge and gives you access to the latest issues of WorldCement, both in print and online.
David Bizley:Every issue comes packed full of regional analysis, technical articles, project case studies, and the latest industry news. Simply head over to worldcement.com, click the Magazine tab, and register today. It's as simple as that. Happy reading! So, Álvaro, delighted to have you here with us on the World Cement podcast today.
David Bizley:We've got lots of exciting things to cover.
Álvaro Lorenz:Hi, happy from my side. I'm very excited to discuss and chat a little bit.
David Bizley:Excellent. So you recently published an update on your progress towards your 2030 decarbonization goals. Now before we get into the details of that progress, tell us about the goals. What are the main targets you're aiming for?
Álvaro Lorenz:Indeed, we have updated our in Science Based Targeted Initiative that was made at end of twenty twenty two, and we have reviewed and lowered our target of CO2 emissions. So it used to be five twenty kilos of CO2 per ton of cement tissues, we had to reduce it to four seventy five. So that's an important reduction, which is our commitment for 02/1930. And together with that, because this is Scope one emissions, our additional target was established to reduce our Scope two emissions by 52.4% compared to the base year, which is 2018. It's also important to confirm that our targets not only, let's say, committed to 02/1930, it's to achieve a net zero emission in concrete by 02/1950.
David Bizley:Okay. Excellent. So how are things going with the decarbonization process? You know, what are your main achievements so far?
Álvaro Lorenz:Indeed, are, I'd say progressing quite well. Usually the cement sector uses 1990 as a reference, as a target starting date to compare emission reduction. So compared to 1990, we have achieved already 27.9% of emissions reduction, which gave us the result in 2024 in five fifty kilos of CO2 per ton of cementitious material. So we are sticking to our commitment and our external and public commitment to achieve force 75 by the February or eventually even sooner.
David Bizley:Okay. Excellent. You stated in, your recent announcement that, Votorantim's decarbonization strategy is based on four main pillars. Can you expand on what those four pillars are? Tell us a bit about those.
Álvaro Lorenz:Yeah. In order to achieve this reduction and keep reducing it throughout the years, our strategy is based in four different pillars. So the first one is how can we reduce utilization of fossil fuels? So by doing that, we replace with material that we call co processing. So everything that can replace fossil fuels that in our case is pet coke.
Álvaro Lorenz:So we can use tires, we can use municipal solid waste, we can use different sources of biomass, different types of waste. So we are trying to use as much as we can knowing that we have, I'd say, in our geographical footprint, quite large. So in different regions, for example, in Brazil, we are present in several regions of Brazil, so we can access different sources of biomass where, for example, one very interesting case, which is utilization of acai, energetic fruit. We use the peats of acai as a source of biomass fuel for our plants. So we achieved by the end of 2024, '30 '2 percent of fossil fuel replacing, which is a huge achievement.
Álvaro Lorenz:So that's one pillar. And it's very important also to notice that among the comparison with different peers, we use out of this co processing huge amount of biomass. In our case, we achieved at the end of last year, 18% of biomass utilization, which put us in one of the top tier in terms of fossil fuel replacement. So that's the first lever in terms of reducing our CO2 footprint. The second one is to use what we call cementitious materials so that everything that could replace or can replace a clinker, which is the material that's produced out of the kiln.
Álvaro Lorenz:So by doing that, we reduce the dependency of using clinker to use in different regions, different types of materials like from steel production, we use fly ash, which comes out from thermal power plants that are still in some countries are still being present. We use limestone and we have one technology which is already going on, which is the calcined clay. We have been using this technology in Brazil for several years already and has been proven to be a huge impact in terms of CO2 reduction. So this is the second target we achieved end of last year, seventy two point five percent of clinical replacement in 2024. It is what we call energy efficiency and the utilization of renewable energy sources.
Álvaro Lorenz:So we are trying to reduce our smoke to emissions. And we have, for example, Brazil, several different sources of renewable energy. We have, I'd say, hydropower plants that are being using energy. We have one wind farm in the Northeast Of Brazil and also in other countries. And we are right now building solar farm.
Álvaro Lorenz:Just as a curiosity, this is going to supply in Brazil a hundred megawatts of solar energy. Interesting, it's going to be 700,000 solar panels that are going to be used, which will make us, for example, Brazil, starting January 2026, '70 '5 percent of the whole energy that we use in our operations in Brazil will become renewable energy. That's a major accomplishment, even exceeding our target to achieve 45% of energy. And finally, the fourth one is everything which is connected to technology development. We have started already one pilot plant of carbon capture in one of our plants in Spain, it's called the Alcoanera plant.
Álvaro Lorenz:That technology, which is called the hot potassium carbonate. So we are testing this technology in order to prove it can capture and reduce our CO2 emissions. We are advancing in another pilot to be installed in a plant that we have in The United States. The plant is called Charlevoix in Michigan state, which is also going to use a different type of technology, which is called the main brain technology. So we're exploring these technologies because in order to reduce and capture this CO2, that's ahead of investment.
Álvaro Lorenz:So we are proving and testing different technologies in order to best adapt the choices that we are going to make in the future.
David Bizley:Okay. Excellent. There's a lot going on. Your announcement highlighted, sort of four main examples of progress in your decarbonization journey. And one of those, for example, was back in February, you were rated A for your climate efforts by CDP for the second year in a row.
David Bizley:Before we get into the rating itself and what that means, can you just give us a brief overview of who CDP is?
Álvaro Lorenz:Yeah, so CDP is a known NGO, so a non profit organisation that is being used as a reference in the world as I'd say assessing governance and management in terms of climate change. So that was an organization that was founded back in 2000 in The UK, and in fact they assess a huge set of companies, just as information in 2024, they have assessed more than 22,000 companies in terms of not only results, but governance in terms of everything related to climate change.
David Bizley:Okay, excellent. And what exactly does the A rating mean and how would that differ from a B, for example?
Álvaro Lorenz:Yeah. So the rating system used by CDP ranges from A to F. So according to the result and governance, as a result, for example, in a second year in a row, we got the, what the thing was, they called A list and just information out of these 22,000 companies that were assessed in 2024, only 2% of the companies got the A score. So that is, for example, 500 companies or 2% of all companies are rated in A, which for us is very important, not just the rating itself, but what is behind it, because sustainability is not just an organization, it's the whole movement inside the company in order to achieve and address climate change.
David Bizley:And one of the other achievements noted in this announcement was that towards the end of last year, Verterantim launched Blendtur, a new lower carbon cement for the Iberian Peninsula. What is it that makes this blend more environmentally friendly?
Álvaro Lorenz:Yeah. We we we all know that in terms of advance, in terms of everything related to decarbonization and climate change, addressing, I'd say, sustainable production and sustainable solutions is a key point. We see a lot of different customers requiring low carbon footprint products and solutions. So we decided to launch this initiative in Spain. And this is a range of products and solutions that reduce 30% of our CO2 footprint and has been quite successful because, as I said, a lot of customers has been requiring, because for example, when they're going to build a different building or a different foundation in order to have all those, I'd say green labeling, it's important to have the whole value chain addressing, reduce this year to footprint.
Álvaro Lorenz:So that has been a quite a successful story. And we have increasing the investment because it's not just the brand itself. It's a lot of technology behind in order to produce different types of cement and concrete that, as I said, reduced by 30% our, I'd say usual CO2 footprint.
David Bizley:Okay. And why did you decide to launch in Spain First? Do you have plans to provide this this mix elsewhere?
Álvaro Lorenz:Yeah. We we have, I'd say, a big footprint in Spain and being present in the European community, everything which is in terms of, I'd say, carbon market solution and everything related. We know that by 2026, we will have the sedan implemented. So that helps us to keep increasing the pace, to reduce our CO2 footprint. And by allowing our customer network to achieve these lower CO2 products, will help us keep investing even bigger, more money being invested in terms of to achieve a lower CO2 footprint.
Álvaro Lorenz:So it's a win win situation. We offer our customers these lower CO2 footprint products and they require it, and this is enabling us to keep investing and improving our general target.
David Bizley:Okay. Excellent. Now, no discussion of decarbonization in the cement industry would be complete without at least some mention of carbon capture. And you've already mentioned two exciting new projects, one at Al Canara and one at Charlevoix, if I said that correctly, I hope, in North America. Tell us a bit about those projects.
David Bizley:Are there different approaches involved and what kind of results are you looking for?
Álvaro Lorenz:So in fact, the CapEx or the investment needed in order to capture CO2 is quite high because the concentration of CO2 in what we call the flue gas, that means everything that comes out from the stack of a cement plant, it needs to be concentrated. So the technology that requires to be used requires a huge amount of energy. That's why having a target to increase our renewable energies is a must for Voltocin cement on the whole cement industry. So the consumption of energy is quite high. The second one is in order to make the concentration of the CO2 in this gas requires a different, let's say mixtures and chemicals.
Álvaro Lorenz:So the definition of what type of technology in order not only to capture the CO2, but also to have the minimum impact as possible in terms of cost, it's key. So in order to test different types of technology as different cement players, have been trying and testing two different technologies at the present. So the first one in our plant in Alconeri in Spain, it's a technology called the hot potassium carbonate. So in fact, it helps it's a different chemical solution that I'd say separates CO2 for other gases, nitrogen and NOx. So it's going quite well.
Álvaro Lorenz:So that could be one potential solution in order to upgrade and cover the whole cement production in that and eventually other cement plants that we have in Spain. And in order not to be, let's say, kept in only one technology, we decided to go to another type of technology in The United States or North America in this Charlevoix plant, which is located in Michigan state by using a membrane technology. So this one uses different types of chemical admixture and it's in a modular concept. So that could be based assistance where we would upgrade the installation and sizing across the times. This is ongoing and we are quite excited because this will help us better define and then keep going in our, I'd say, external targets of CO2 reduction.
David Bizley:Fantastic. One of the other things you mentioned in your announcement was that the money you've been investing into co processing projects in Brazil over the last year. Can you tell us a bit about some of those projects? Are there any particularly noteworthy examples that stand out? And what kind of upgrades have you been investing in?
David Bizley:And if I can add another question to that, what sort of, again, results are you looking for there?
Álvaro Lorenz:Yeah. So we have announced that in 2024, '5 billion reais investment in a five year plan. So twenty four to twenty eight, which will enable us to increase our competitiveness, to reduce our CO2 footprint and use less resources. So in doing that, we have a whole set of different projects and sizes in order to increase, as I said, our competitiveness. We are going quite well.
Álvaro Lorenz:So we have one or several, I could give several examples, but just trying to keep in two, make it shorter. So we have one investment in one plant in the center of Brazil, our Tokantins state, and this plant can access different sources of biomass because as we know, Brazil is a country with a lot of agriculture being available. So the, I'd say the residue or the waste of the agriculture can be used as a source of biomass. So we have implemented this project to replace fossil fuel, as I said, that used to be pet coke, two different sources of biomass. And the first year already, after the commissioning, we already achieved 55% of fossil fuel replacement.
Álvaro Lorenz:So that has been a huge success, not only in terms of, let's say, replacement, but in situ reduction. Another example I can give is in the Sao Paulo state, close to Sao Paulo City. So that was an investment made in, and in fact it was a green financing that we got with, know, IFC, International Finance Corporation, has been the first IFC investment that was made in the cement sector in Brazil. So we got $150,000,000 of green financing and we have enabled one plant, which is called the Sao To, And this Sao To plant has been increasing the amount of co processing quite high. Our target is to achieve two thirds of the fuel replacement by using different types of waste, including what we call municipal solid waste, which for bigger cities like Sao Paulo, Twenty Million inhabitants, it's a big challenge in order to reduce the material being sent to landfill.
Álvaro Lorenz:So this addresses not only our commitments in terms of operating cement, but also in terms of addressing social issues, in terms of reducing the material being sent to the landfill. That's a second example, if you allow me just a third one that I just recall, we have made a huge investment in the South Of Brazil, gave three examples, one in the North Of Brazil, the second one in the center and one in the South Of Brazil. We have one business line, EVO20 in Brazil that is called Verdera, it's a business line that is what we call total waste management. So this company we have installed two facilities. One is to receive material from different sources of waste generators, so plastics, textile and different plastics that those generators made available that the user to be sent to the landfills.
Álvaro Lorenz:During this co processing facility, we receive it, we crush it, grind it, and then homogenize. And then we send to one plant, which is the biggest cement plant in South America, or even in Latin America that can consume this material. That has been another, let's say, key investment that we're making out of this 5,000,000,000 investment that was announced that allow us to keep addressing to our, say, external commitments in terms of carbon footprint.
David Bizley:Excellent. And what are the next steps for your decarbonization strategy? Are there any upcoming projects that we should be keeping an eye out for?
Álvaro Lorenz:As I said, us increasing the amount of renewable energy is a key target for us. As I said, by January 2026, we'll be start running the solar farm, which will allow us to achieve 75% of renewable energy in Brazil. Second One is to keep expanding this Glenshoe brand in order to allow us keep investing and making it available to our customers in Iberia or Portugal and Spain regions to have these low carbon products being made available. Third one is everything connected to a deployment of different technologies in terms of carbon capture. We know that's a must in terms of the cement sector.
Álvaro Lorenz:And the fourth one, which is, I'd say more spread throughout the whole footprint that we have different initiatives, grabbing auctions in order to increase the four different levers that we have, which is co processing, clinker replacement by using different sources of semi tissues and increasing what we call in our company adjacencies. So everything which is not, I'd say directly cement and ready mix. So we have one agricultural lime being made available. So we help knowing that Brazil has a vocation to agriculture. So we keep increasing the productivity of the agriculture sector in Brazil.
Álvaro Lorenz:So that's a win win situation. Second one is everything related to this total waste management. And we keep increasing that we have even implemented a virtual transport company without having any truck. So we can all do all this same management of different fleet in order to better serve our different customers. So we have a lot of things in our plan in the next five years.
Álvaro Lorenz:So we are very optimistic in terms of achieving our external targets and moving the organization behind it.
David Bizley:Okay, fantastic. I think I said earlier, lots going on. So before we end things for this episode, do you have any final thoughts or comments for the World Cement audience?
Álvaro Lorenz:There is a quote from the United Nations about what they call sustainable development. So what is sustainable develop? So it's a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. So if we just understand that, I think the whole commitment of Authorities Incimentos is to leave behind what we call a positive legacy. We are very committed to our external targets in terms of addressing climate change.
Álvaro Lorenz:We have been seeing unfortunately a lot of events throughout the world. So we are very committed in order to reduce our CO2 footprint. We have public targets that cover not only our CO2 emissions, but a whole set of public commitments. You can find it, everybody who is going to listen to this podcast, you can find in our integrated report that was released March. It's a host, we have 19 KPIs that address not only, let's say, as I said, the CO2 footprint, but everything related to safety, related to sustainable solutions, related to diversity, related to a lot of things in terms of social transformation.
Álvaro Lorenz:So for me, I think that the whole invitation here for everyone who is listening to it, it's a society, it's the world commitment in order to reduce and address climate change. This has to be made throughout the whole value chain. So it's not just the one company addressing it, it's the whole value chain, society that is going to be made of that. And I'd like to just to emphasize the need that we all move, together in these commitments and we are very committed to it, to achieve carbon neutral concrete by twenty, two thousand and fifty.
David Bizley:Excellent. That's a fantastic to point to, to end on there. Alvaro, that does about wrap things up for this episode of the World Cement Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today
Álvaro Lorenz:Thank you.
David Bizley:And for going through Voter Antrim's decarbonization journey.
Álvaro Lorenz:It has been a pleasure, and I hope you guys like it.
David Bizley:And of course, there are more episodes of the World Cement Podcast on the way, so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out. And if you're a new listener, make sure to check out some of our previous episodes featuring guests from companies like EcoSem, the GCCA, and F. A. Schmidt to mend. Oh, and before I leave you, if you like this episode, please make sure to show your support by rating, reviewing, and subscribing.
David Bizley:Goodbye for now. I just wanted to take a moment to remind you to register for World Cement. It's free of charge and gives you access to the latest issues of World Cement, both in print and online. Every issue comes packed full of regional analysis, technical articles, project case studies, and the latest industry news. Simply head over to worldcement.com, click the Magazine tab, and register today.
David Bizley:It's as simple as that. Happy reading!