Innovation

How is Holcim driving innovation in construction?
 

Our strong team of over 300 researchers at seven R&D hubs focuses on innovation accelerating decarbonization across our formulations, energy mix, and advanced technologies.

Working with our local markets, Holcim’s experts pioneer new solutions and tailor innovations for local needs, and we launched 683 new products worldwide in 2025.

Our experts span fields from engineering and material science to artificial intelligence and life cycle analysis.

Harnessing technologies from 309 patent families, they work across Building Materials and Building Solutions, developing integrated end-to-end solutions for our customers.

Additionally, Xella has R&D sites near Potsdam and Berlin, focused on developing and refining its solutions.

How does Holcim innovate for our customers?
 

We innovate to develop new products that meet our customers’ most ambitious needs: sustainable, circular, energy-efficient, resilient and smart solutions to build the infrastructure, industry and buildings tomorrow, today.

Sustainable Building
 

Forward-thinking cities are transforming how they build using low-carbon building materials and solutions. Doing so helps earn EPD-backed regulatory compliance, which unlocks access to sustainable finance and green procurement, as well as top tier sustainability certifications.

• We’re expanding our ECOPlanet and ECOPact product lines with cutting-edge formulations using new materials such as calcined clay and biochar. 
• Ytong and Hebel autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks and panels from Xella minimize use of primary raw materials, are fully recyclable and have extremely low embodied energy.

Read how sustainability is marking history in Oslo with Ytong.

• We’re digitizing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to give customers reliable, instantaneous and accurate product information on demand. 
• In 2025, we generated over 1 600 EPDs covering 6 000 products in 28 countries.

Circular Building
 

The future of construction is circular. As the world’s urban population grows, we’re building a city the size of Madrid every week. Building cities from cities we reduce our use of primary raw materials and minimize waste.

• Using ECOCycle, our proprietary circular technology, we’re recycling construction demolition materials (CDM) into new building solutions. 
• All products with our “ECOCycle Inside” label – from aggregates and ready-mix to cement, precast and mortars – contain from 10% to 100% recycled CDM. 
• On the R&D side, Holcim is investing in new technologies, digitalization and AI to improve the quality of recycled CDM. 
• Ytong and Hebel AAC is fully recyclable: factory residues are fed back into production, as are site offcuts, while material used in old structures can be crushed into granulate, and reused in new buildings.

Discover how ECOCycle made the world’s first fully recycled concrete building.

Resilient Building
 

As our climate changes, Holcim’s R&D teams are focused on developing resilient solutions that better equip cities to withstand more extreme weather – from extreme heat to urban flooding – and improve people's quality of life.

• Hydromedia permeable concrete allows the ultra-rapid evacuation of water directly into soil, reducing the risk of flooding while recharging aquifers. Recently, our R&D teams pioneered Hydromedia with air-enhancing technology - which manages stormwater and cleans the air we breathe. 
• Artevia decorative concrete has a highly reflective coating, increasing the albedo quality of the building’s surface and reducing the urban heat island effect. 
• Green roofs from Zinco and Elevate help control temperatures and reduce urban heat, while supporting biodiversity and bringing nature into cities. 
• Our Basalton shore protection system provides stabilization and erosion control for coastal areas, while Xstone is a specialized marine habitat system made from bioactive concrete that our teams have even made net zero by incorporating biochar.

Smart Building
 

Using AI and Building Information Modeling (BIM) alongside innovative building technologies, our teams help customers optimize the design, construction and operation of urban spaces – unlocking higher asset values and ESG compliance.

• Dynamax high-performance concrete delivers high strength, outstanding durability and superior rigidity to optimize usable space and build longer lasting buildings. 
• 3D printing with TectorPrint mortar can reduce material use by up to 50% with no compromise in performance, significantly lowering a building’s carbon footprint and unlocking design freedom. 
• Carbon pre-stressed concrete (CPC) slabs are thin, precast units reinforced with prestressed carbon fibers - ensuring the same load-bearing capacity as standard concrete while using up to 80% less material. 
• Smartcast, Smartflow and Smartherm are Holcim’s digital concrete services – used to optimize mix designs before the pour, and onsite performance.

Holcim’s innovation partnerships
 

We partner across the building value chain – with engineers, architects, urban planners, city leaders and more – to push the boundaries and scale innovative solutions.

Our collaborations start with project design and engineering and continue through to project execution.
 

What are some high-profile, innovative projects Holcim has partnered on?
 

• Holcim solutions including ECOPact, ECOPlanet, Dynamax and Zinco are at the heart of The Ellinikon in Athens, Greece, while we built the world’s first EPD-certified ready-mix plan onsite. 
• Through Blades2Build, we collaborated with Acciona and Endesa to recycle old wind turbine blades into ECOPact concrete using our ECOCycle technology. 
• We worked with ELEMENTAL and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena to present a new biochar technology that transforms buildings into carbon sinks, at the 2024 Architecture Biennale.

How does Holcim partner with startups?
 

• We partner with leading startups in the construction sector through Holcim MAQER Ventures, Holcim’s corporate venture capital and open innovation unit. 

  Notable startup partnerships include: 

  • Paebbl and SaltX on low-carbon materials, supplementary materials and electrification. 
  • Nanolike on smart operations, sensing, and monitoring.
  • CPC AG and Gravis Robotics on optimized prefabrication, 3D concrete printing, modular construction and robotics.
     

• Our innovation teams also work with our portfolio companies to refine and scale their solutions. 

  Key partnerships include: 

  • Nanolike 
    Optimizing customers’ deliveries with digital inventory management powered by sensors on cement silos.
  • CPC 
    Allowing customers to reduce material use by up to 80%, while lowering emissions by up to 75%, and unlocking circularity by design. 
  • CCB Greentech 
    Offering customers a durable, bio-based building solution using wood concrete that acts as a carbon sink.

What academic partnerships does Holcim have?

We partner with renowned universities around the world to co-develop next-generation building solutions in fields ranging from material science to civil engineering. Our academic partners include:

• ETH Zürich 
• EPFL 
• University of Cambridge 
• Southeast University 
• The Indian Institutes of Technology