Holcim France steps up decarbonisation investments

Holcim is deploying an extra EUR60m to continue the decarbonisation of its industrial sites in France. These funds also come in addition to the EUR200m already invested over the last three years. 

This major investment plan in favour of the decarbonisation of operations in France and the circular economy will make it possible to develop new technological and industrial platforms aimed at improving the environmental performance of the seven factories on French territory. They will be put into service between 2025-26 in Saint-Pierre-la-Cour (Mayenne), Martres-Tolosane (Haute-Garonne), Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude), Val d'Azergue (Rhône), Le Teil (Ardèche), Altkirch (Haut-Rhin) and La Malle (Bouches-du-Rhône). 

These investments will also make it possible to accelerate the development of the ECOPlanet and ECOPact low-carbon cement and concrete in the French market. In 2024 ECOPlanet low-carbon cements will represent 40 per cent of the French leader's total cement offering. 

Beyond reducing CO₂ emissions by more than 120,000tpa, all of these investments will also be beneficial for local economic areas by generating the creation of more than 40 direct jobs. These investments will have a leverage effect on the development on a regional scale of new sectors and jobs in terms of the circular economy on the one hand and, in the medium term, in the capture, storage and valorisation of CO₂  somewhere else. As such, a new pilot platform, a real open innovation industrial test bench, will be built within the Martres-Tolosane factory. It will be devoted to improving emerging CO₂ capture technologies. 

Holcim France has set itself the objective of reducing CO₂ emissions from its sites from 47 per cent (central scenario) to 69 per cent (ambitious scenario) by 2030, and by 95 per cent by 2050, by compared to 2015 in absolute value (ETS scope). 

These investments include:
• an open-innovation platform to improve the efficiency and environmental footprint of CO₂ capture technologies at the Martres-Tolosane plant: EUR9m
• recycling and transformation platforms for construction waste in five urban areas for a total of EUR6m (Laval, Le Havre, Martres-Tolosane, Orange, Lyon)
• construction waste recovery platforms in the cement process at its seven factories for a total of EUR24m (Val d'Azergue, Le Teil, Port-la-Nouvelle, Martres-Tolosane, La Malle, Saint-Pierre-La-Cour, Altkirch
• Platforms for the recovery of fuels from biomass waste – Saint-Pierre-la-Cour plant EUR13m, Martres-Tolosane plant EUR11m and Port-la-Nouvelle plant EUR1m.