For those of you who weren’t able to join us in London last month for EnviroTech 2026, I’m sorry to say that you missed out on another fantastic show. Leading cement producers (and other decarbonisation experts) from around the world took to the stage once again to share their thoughts on the latest developments on the cement industry’s long road to net zero.
With presenters and panellists diving into topics ranging from calcined clay, to carbon capture and everything in between, this year’s show also provided a golden opportunity to showcase some of the exciting decarbonisation projects taking place in the UK, such as Peak Cluster and HyNet. Indeed, much of this year’s closing CCUS panel discussion focused around these projects and the unique advantages (and challenges) surrounding the roll-out of CCUS in the UK. Our three panellists (Rachel Sutton, Interim CEO of Peak Cluster Ltd; Tolga Timirci, Head of Global CCUS projects of Heidelberg Materials; and Tom Redfern, Head of Sustainability at Holcim UK) explored everything from practical challenges, to the role of policy support, and even buy-in from local communities.
Another standout feature from this year’s CCUS panel was the involvement of the audience from our sister-conference, World Pipelines CCS Forum, which was running concurrently at the same venue. A few years ago, the decision to combine audiences from cement and pipelines might have left people scratching their heads, but the establishment of carbon capture (and the necessary pipeline infrastructure) as a keystone technology for the decarbonisation roadmaps of ‘hard to abate’ industries has changed the dynamic entirely. Bringing these two audiences together provided a unique opportunity for representatives from either side to gain valuable insights into the needs of the other and – I like to think – laid the groundwork for future collaborations as carbon capture facilities continue to come online across the cement industry.
Now, if you weren’t able to make it to this year’s show, I can at least point you towards the next one: mark your calendars for our return to mainland Europe on 14 – 17 March, 2027 as EnviroTech 2027 heads to Madrid. Stay tuned as we’ll be making more information available over the coming months.
Speaking of conferences, if you’re reading this issue, it’s quite likely you picked up a copy at this years’ IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference, taking place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In some ways it’s appropriate that this year’s IEEE takes place in Florida; as the cement industry looks towards the future and sets its sights on new horizons, just three hours north at Cape Canaveral, NASA is engaged in a 21st Century space race. And as NASA aims for the moon once more, perhaps the words of John F. Kennedy during the first space race can apply to the cement industry today; “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”
