Holcim Australia has launched the ECOPact, a low-carbon concrete product range which aims to reduce the embodied carbon of buildings, infrastructure and homes.

At the moment, 20% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions come from construction with building materials a key contributor. The ECOPact can reduce embodied carbo by 30 to 60% compared to the Australian National Life Cycle Inventory Database base case.

In the Sydney Harbour Bridge for example, using ECOPact can achieve a 60% embodied carbon reduction, the equivalent of removing 14,700 cars off the road for one year.

Another offering from Holcim is the ECOPactZERO which uses accredited carbon offsets through Climate Active to reduce embodied carbon by 100%.

“I am proud to announce our commitment to help our customers reduce the embodied carbon of concrete construction. We pride ourselves on being a solutions provider. ECOPact and ECOPactZERO are a substantial shift towards sustainable construction in Australia,” Holcim Australia and New Zealand chief executive George Agriogiannis says.

Holcim’s ViroDecs Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) customers with the ability to understand the impact of the materials supplied into their projects. EPDs are independently verified and registered documents that communicate transparent and comparable data about the life-cycle environmental impact of products.

Green Building Council of Australia chief executive Davina Rooney supports the solution: “We support the development of EPDs in the market as they represent verified, transparent environmental impact data, and have a transformational impact by enabling the built environment to understand its impact on a deeper level.”