Continental Cement Co., a subsidiary of Summit Materials, joined an ambitious journey to achieving carbon neutrality across the cement and concrete value chain by 2050 by signing onto the Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality.
“We are excited to support the PCA by signing the association’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality,” said Tom Beck, Continental Cement president. “As a member of the Summit Materials family of companies, a key focus of our sustainability strategy is to reduce our CO2 emissions, particularly at our cement plants. This roadmap will help us and member companies find innovative solutions so that we can continue to support our communities through infrastructure while reducing our carbon footprint.”
The roadmap focuses on a comprehensive range of reduction strategies for stakeholders to adopt across all phases of the material’s life cycle, such as reducing CO2 from the manufacturing process, decreasing combustion emissions by changing fuel sources, and shifting toward increased use of renewable electricity.
Continental Cement is an established industry leader in the use of alternative fuels, deriving an average of 40% to 45% of the company’s total fuel usage from alternative fuels (based on 2019 usage). The company’s Hannibal Cement Plant co-processes both liquid and solid hazardous waste as a fuel source, while its Davenport Cement Plant uses non-hazardous alternative fuels from surrounding industrial facilities.
In addition to using alternative fuels, Continental Cement is working with customers and specifiers to commercialize portland limestone cement (PLC) in all of its markets. PLC reduces concrete embodied carbon by approximately 10% while delivering resilient and durable infrastructure to our communities.
