Holcim US, a sustainable building materials manufacturer, recently announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), HIIT Contracting, and Baker Concrete Construction to create innovative, low-carbon concrete mixes, promissing 35 to 45 percent lesser CO2 emissions.
The companies’ goals on sustainability enabled a collaborative approach to the initiative.
They prioritized the collaboration of engineers, architects, developers, and builders early in the planning. Named ECOPact, these mixes will be used for the construction of several Amazon Data Centers in Northern Virginia.
Concrete contributes a significant share of embodied carbon in data center construction, and AWS is undertaking initiatives to reduce the carbon impact of the required concrete. AWS implemented a new design standard requiring concrete with at least a 20 percent reduction in embodied carbon versus standard concrete for new U.S. data centers. Holcim’s ECOPact mixes allow AWS to not only meet this requirement but almost double it.
Accelerating the use of low-carbon building materials is essential for Holcim to meet its worldwide 2030 climate target of reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions per ton of cementitious materials by 25 percent by 2030 (from a 2018 base year). Partnerships with companies such as AWS further demonstrate Holcim’s commitment to leading the building materials industry into a more sustainable future.
“It’s the choices we make today that will shape the world we live in tomorrow—and it’s a changing world. New ideas, new technologies and new requirements are changing the ways we design, build, and grow,” says Cedric Barthelemy, regional head, Mid-Atlantic with Holcim US. “AWS and Baker Concrete Construction are known for bold thinking across business models, which extends to the companies’ respective approaches to sustainability. Our partnership pairs AWS’ experience in data warehousing and our expertise in designing low-carbon concretes ultimately result in contributing to a more sustainable built environment.”
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