Faster-blended cement adoption pushed for Phl
Holcim Philippines is advocating for more blended cement to be used in the country’s infrastructure given its performance and sustainability advantages. The Davao Coastal Road is among those that used blended cement specifically infrastructure building solution Holcim Solido. (Image courtesy of DPWH Region 11)
Since 2010, the Philippines has seen increased spending on infrastructure to boost the country’s development. With the incoming government pledging to continue this building drive, the construction sector will remain a major driver in the country’s economic recovery and development. In fact, the Department Trade and Industry’s Philippine Construction Industry Roadmap projects the building industry to potentially contribute up to P130 trillion to the economy by 2030 from P2.3 trillion in 2018.
The bright outlook for the sector brings many opportunities for the construction industry, but it also requires much prudence to ensure that growth is sustainable and does not result in increased consumption of finite resources. In the context of building materials, Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) has a huge environmental footprint and its use needs to be significantly reduced.
There are more alternatives available in the market today that provide the same if not better performance but with a lower environmental impact.
Building solutions provider Holcim Philippines is among those looking to make a positive difference as it joins the Holcim Group’s net zero journey to decarbonize the business from its operations and products all the way to the built environment by providing more environment-friendly alternatives. This enables the company to support the country’s recovery and help make economic development sustainable.
“Today, more than 55 million people are living in urban areas in the Philippines. By 2050, more than 100 million are estimated to be living in cities and the structures they need have yet to be built. The question is how do we build more with less? The local construction industry will need to focus more on doing more recycling, building with lower carbon footprint, and more sustainable solutions,” said Horia Adrian, president and CEO of Holcim Philippines.
As a response, the company has beefed up its portfolio of blended cement products having released five new building solutions since 2020 that use less virgin raw materials while delivering equal to superior building performance. Among its latest releases is Holcim ECOPlanet, a general purpose blended cement with 30 percent lower carbon footprint than OPC which is favoured by local builders.
This direction also supports the 2021 Vision Document of the Philippine Contractors Association, which identified building sustainable infrastructure as among the top 10 trends in the industry.
“It is encouraging to see more real estate developers committing to increase the share of green buildings in their overall portfolio. We are hoping to increase our involvement at the project development stage to push for greener alternatives in various aspects of building and infrastructure projects. We are also engaging our retail partners to help push the right product for the right application to the end-users,” Adrian said.
Holcim Philippines is ramping up its green building promotion by having its sales force as environmental advocates at the front lines. Furthermore, the company is engaging various stakeholders from the private and public sector including the academic community to accelerate the adoption of green building materials like low-carbon blended cements in the building industry.