Imagine the city of the future, with state-of-the-art buildings, infrastructure and industry built sustainably with people’s social and economic wellbeing top of mind. A city full of greenery and biodiversity – to ensure quality of life and resilience and harmony with nature.
The good news? All of this is possible now, as forward-thinking cities pioneer transformative solutions to the challenges of our century.
With our vision to be the leading partner for sustainable construction, Holcim sees five opportunities to build the NextGen cities of the future, enabled by our sustainable building solutions, and building progress for people and the planet.
#1 SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION
To build the sustainable, resilient cities of tomorrow, forward-looking city leaders are transforming how they construct our urban environments – significantly reducing the carbon “embodied” in the materials used, from extraction to manufacturing and construction.
Holcim’s ECOPact low-carbon concrete reduces embodied carbon emissions by at least 30% compared to standard concrete without offsets.
Solutions such as ECOPact are also backed by Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), which independently verify claims on everything from the construction phase to use and end-of-life scenarios to meet the ambitious sustainability goals of city-shaping projects.
Holcim can even provide digital, on-demand EPDs within minutes for any existing and future concrete mixes, for any project, at any stage. This third-party verified data allows us to work with customers from tender through to design and construction, to optimize mixes and report on sustainability performance.
At the same time, cities can explore the latest solutions for sustainable construction to help meet their climate neutrality goals. At Holcim, we constantly innovate to develop low-carbon or near-zero carbon building solutions, and will be able to offer over 8 million tons of near-zero cement each year by 2030.
MELBOURNE METRO TUNNEL
Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel is a transformational city project that involves building a new line and five new stations. Built using over 600,000 m3 of Holcim’s low-carbon concrete in the project’s first five years, it will create room for 500,000 more passengers a week, and support the city’s goal to be zero carbon by 2040.
#2 Circular Construction
To construct the buildings, infrastructure and industry that we all need in a way that works for people and the planet, cities across the world have an opportunity to accelerate circular construction.
Circular construction reimagines how urban spaces are designed, built and decommissioned. At its core, it keeps materials in use for as long as possible and designs for disassembly at the city level – integrating resource efficiency across the lifecycle of a project, which can then be reused or recycled.
Holcim has set a target of recycling over 20 million tons of construction demolition materials (CDM) by 2030. In key metropolitan areas worldwide, we are working with cities to accelerate circular construction and upcycle CDM into sustainable building solutions using our ECOCycle® circular technology.
RECYGÉNIE
The Recygénie housing complex in Paris, France, with ECOCycle®, is the world’s first building built using fully recycled concrete. As a result, 6,000 tons of primary materials were saved, and the project won the 2023 Reuters Responsible Business Award for Circular Transition.
#3 ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUILDINGS
Energy used to power, heat and cool buildings is responsible for up to 80% of CO2 emissions in cities. By designing and retrofitting buildings with thermal insulation and advanced roofing systems to improve energy efficiency, there is a unique opportunity to speed up the transition to NextGen cities of the future.
With 80% of current buildings and infrastructure still expected to be in use by 2050, the market for energy-efficient repair and refurbishment is thriving.
Here too, Holcim stands ready to support the cities of the future, with energy-efficient solutions for new projects and existing buildings that reduce energy consumption throughout the building lifecycle.
AL WASL TOWER
Dubai's Al Wasl Tower is being built using Airium®, our innovative mineral insulating foam that will improve the building’s energy efficiency and simplify construction systems and processes.
LES TRÈFLES
Les Trèfles school in Anderlecht, Belgium, is built following the passive house approach, a model for sustainable design and superior energy performance. Elevate’s UltraPly™ TPO roofing system provides maximum energy efficiency and provides a durable foundation for a 7,000 m2 green roof.
#4 NATURE-POSITIVE AND RESILIENT
Rising sea levels, flooding and extreme temperatures — our climate is changing, and it is essential that our homes, schools and other vital infrastructure are resilient enough to cope. At the same time, bringing nature into cities helps ensure biodiversity and improve wellbeing.
Holcim's building solutions can help cities become more sustainable and resilient.
BUILDING WATER-WISE CITIES
Floods are the most destructive of natural disasters, damaging property, critical public infrastructure and displacing people. Holcim offers a wide range of innovative solutions to avoid flooding and improve cities’ water management capabilities:
Hydromedia permeable concrete enables ultra-rapid evacuation of water directly into the soil, rapidly absorbing rainwater off streets, parking surfaces, driveways and walkways – reducing flood risks.
HumeFilter Universal Pollutant Trap (UPT) is one of Holcim’s precast stormwater management solutions include drainage, detention, treatment, harvesting and reuse systems
Elevate’s EPDM lining solutions, such as GeoSmart and PondEasy, are designed for water storage and usage.
CREATING COOL, GREEN CITIES
Holcim’s range of innovative solutions are helping cities create green spaces to make them more liveable. Green or vegetative roofs help control temperatures and combat the urban heat island effect.
ZinCo is a global leader in advanced green roofing systems, with many spectacular projects worldwide. Elevate EPDM and TPO roofing membranes offer a reliable and durable foundation for green roof applications.
Hydromedia permeable concrete helps bring greenery into urban areas. With its permeable properties, it allows direct rainwater infiltration over urban surfaces, allowing us to create urban forests without irrigation.
Artevia® decorative concrete has a highly reflective coloring to increase the albedo quality of the surface and reduce the heat island effect.
JURONG LAKE GARDENS
Jurong Lake Gardens is one of Singapore's newest national gardens, a 90-hectare urban oasis for the community. Elevate’s PondGard EPDM membrane was used to waterproof the pond.
A BLUEPRINT FOR COASTAL RESILIENCE
By 2025, 410 million people in coastal communities could be at risk of coastal flooding and rising sea-levels. Holcim offers resilient solutions for the coastal engineering, river protection and infrastructure construction segments.
Our Basalton shore protection system for coast and revetment areas provides stabilization and erosion control.
Xbloc is a coastal breakwater armor system using Holcim low-carbon concrete solutions such as ECOPact, which also incorporates recycled construction demolition materials.
REDUCING AIR POLLUTION TO BREATHE EASY
Cities suffer the most from air pollution, which impacts health and the environment.
Holcim has an innovative new draining and depolluting concrete that can help transform urban landscapes.
Hydromedia with air-enhancing technology contains special additives to remove pollutants from the air, such as nitrogen oxides.
#5 SMART DESIGN
Advancing digital automation and smart design will be vital as we build the cities of the future. An urban planning revolution has just begun, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) allowing us to use generative design to plan more sustainable, optimized urban landscapes.
At the same time, smart design allows for more accurate planning and optimized resource use, unlocking significant CO2 and material savings.
Cities around the world can benefit from these innovative technologies, which are making sustainable construction more accessible and effective than ever before – for buildings, infrastructure and industry.
EMPOWERING SMART DESIGN TO BUILD BETTER WITH LESS
We make this possible with proprietary technologies:
3D printing can reduce material use by up to 50%, with no compromise in terms of performance, while significantly lowering a building or structure’s carbon footprint. With our TectorPrint mortar, we can unlock freedom of design and form, and achieve time, cost and material savings, as well as sustainability benefits.
DYNAMax high-performance concrete delivers high strength, outstanding
durability and superior rigidity to optimize usable space and build longer-lasting buildings.
Carbon pre-stressed concrete (CPC) slabs are thin, light precast plates made of high-strength concrete reinforced with prestressed carbon fibers, which have the same load-bearing capacity as standard concrete slabs. They use up to 80% less material with up to 75% lower CO2 emissions, and are circular by design.
Streamlining Digital Services
Using our digital concrete services, we can deliver structures that are built faster, last longer and are more sustainable.
SMARTCast speeds up the construction process with sensors installed in concrete to measure its temperature and assess its strength in real time.
SMARTFLOW reduces cost as well as delays, using a digital simulation to measure concrete flowability, and supports sustainability by removing the need for real-size trials.
SMARTTherm simulates concrete’s temperature development to reduce cost, mitigate risk and optimize its thermal profile.
3D-PRINTED OFFICE
In 2024, we worked with A3D Building to build Spain’s first 3D-printed office building at our Torres de la Alameda site. Using 3D concrete printing with our TectorPrint mortar unlocked freedom of design and form, and achieved time, cost and material savings, as well as sustainability benefits
