Holcim North America's climate commitments scrutinised ahead of US$30bn US listing
Holcim North America is hiding pollution liabilities and other risks from investors as the company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange in early 2025, warns a high profile new campaign, Concrete Change, led by US-based non-profit, Industrious Labs.
“Holcim’s US facilities are woefully behind when it comes to reducing climate pollution from cement production. The longer the company delays, the higher the risk to shareholders through lost value as the company faces mounting costs to catch up,” said Nachy Kanfer, a partner at Industrious Labs.
According to the campaign, Holcim operates aging and outdated facilities that will require massive costs to catch up with its competitors. Furthermore, Holcim’s has made insufficient climate commitments, with the risk that the company will cede control of the US market for low-carbon cement to its competitors.
The campaign seeks three commitments from Holcim, namely to identify one flagship plant to be net-zero by 2030, operate no wet kilns by 2035 and pledge to reach Scope 1 target of 420kg/t CO2e by 2030.
According to CemNet.com research, Holcim is planning to build three net-zero plants in North America that will capture over 5Mta of CO2 – Exshaw, Canada (2030), Ste Genevieve, US (2029) and Portland, Colorado, US (2032) – making it a leading force in North American CCS deployment.
At a group level, the company has also pledged to reduce Scope 1 emissions to 420kg CO2/t cementitious, matching the commitment demanded by the campaign.
Holcim, which yesterday launched a low-carbon cement technology start-up in the US, rejects the claims set out by Industrious Labs. “Holcim North America is a leader in sustainability in its market,” said the company in a statement. “The planned listing of Holcim’s North American business in the US is on track to be completed in the first half of 2025, with the aim of unlocking a new era of value creation for all stakeholders.”
Industrious Labs Inc is a US based non-profit set up with the aim to ‘decarbonise heavy industry by 2045’. The organisation declined requests by CemNet.com to disclose its sources of funding and ultimate ownership.
