The Big Deal with Low-Carbon Cement
- cnasir9
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Why the Sector's Future Belongs to Those Who Understand That Technology Is Only Half the Battle
Adam Small, Senior Partner at Green Executives, has spent years in conversation with the people quietly reshaping the cement industry. In this introduction to our latest report, he cuts through the noise — and gets to what really matters.
There is a story told in the cement industry that rarely makes it into press releases or funding announcements. It is not about breakthroughs in chemistry, or billion-dollar valuations, or the race to net zero. It is quieter than that, and more instructive.
It is the story of a water bottle.
In America, where oil and gas are plentiful, you can buy a bottle of water encased in thick, sturdy plastic — packaging built as if resources were infinite. Cross the Atlantic, and that same litre of water arrives in something that crumples in your hand. Not because Europeans care less about their water. But because they learned long ago, to do more with less. The function is identical. The carbon footprint is not.
This, say those who truly understand low-carbon cement, is the philosophy that will ultimately determine which companies lead the sector's transformation — and which fall away. It is not the grandest technology. It is the most efficient one. Not the loudest claim. The most proven.
What incumbents understand too well
Ask any seasoned voice in the low-carbon cement sector what the real obstacle to transformation is, and the answer surprises most newcomers: it is not price. Price matters, of course. Everyone knows that. But below the surface, there lies a deeper, more structural challenge that startups systematically underestimate — and that incumbents understand all too well.
Standards.
Society needs concrete to be safe. The person sitting in a building, the driver crossing a bridge — they place an implicit trust in materials that have been tested, verified and approved through rigorous standardisation processes. And those processes, in many cases, were designed in an era before computers existed. Science has leapt forward. The frameworks used to validate it have not kept pace.
Getting a new product approved through these systems demands millions in investment, years of persistence, and a team that operates simultaneously as scientists, lobbyists and diplomats. Approval at a European level does not guarantee acceptance in any individual country's building codes. Innovation, however brilliant, can languish for a decade waiting to be certified for use.
This is why the most important competitive advantage in the low-carbon space is more than just chemistry — it is patience, combined with the capital to endure.
Why Profitability Changes Everything
The low-carbon cement conversation has, in recent years, been dominated by extraordinary funding rounds and startups attracting venture capital at scale. This is to be celebrated — it signals that the market believes change is coming.
But there is a shadow side to this story. Companies driven by investor timelines face an exit pressure that does not serve the long game. The standards process is a long game. The relationships required to move policy are a long game. The credibility needed to bring major partners to the table — as equals, not as supplicants — is a long game.
Profitability-funded independence, as those inside the sector know, creates a different kind of freedom. The ability to invest in science, in demonstration projects, in regulatory engagement — not because a funding round demands it, but because the business can sustain it. That distinction is not semantic. It is strategic.
A Warning Worth Hearing
The most urgent message from those navigating this transition is directed not just at businesses, but at policymakers.
Carbon pricing mechanisms — such as Europe's Emissions Trading System and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism — are vital. They raise the cost of high-carbon materials and create the economic headroom for low-carbon alternatives to compete. But pricing alone is not enough.
Unless standards reform allows new products genuine market access, the effect of carbon costs is simply absorbed by the end user. Infrastructure gets built regardless of cement prices — it is one of the most inelastic products in existence. The only way to drive real change is to make high-carbon materials more expensive and make low-carbon alternatives easier to bring to market. Both levers must move together.
If the financial community and policymakers fail to grasp the full weight of the standards challenge, transformative technologies will continue to fail quietly — acquired before reaching scale, or validated too late to matter.
What the Leaders Are Building
Across Europe and beyond, a new generation of cement companies is beginning to show what genuine transformation looks like. They are moving into major infrastructure. They are proving performance on the most demanding projects. They are coming to licensing negotiations as proven technology providers offering their partners something valuable: efficiency, independence and a product the market has already accepted.
That is a very different conversation.
Our full report profiles the companies, founders and investors who are navigating this transition most intelligently — the four pathways to independence, the critical success criteria and the on-the-ground realities of scaling in one of the world's most complex industries.
The question is no longer whether low-carbon cement will scale. The question is who will own that transformation — and how.
The answer may surprise you.
Download the report here