Signature of the Concrete Agreement Netherlands – our commitment to reduce CO2 emissions

Today, Tuesday 10 July 2018, the Concrete Agreement Netherlands is signed. BASF is a co-signatory to this chain agreement for a sustainable concrete sector. Pieter van Gent, Business Manager Benelux: “The chemical sector plays a key role in sustainable concrete. Building chemistry contributes to technological solutions that make concrete more sustainable and better.”

Our polymer additives help achieve higher strength and a longer service life. Through the application of our additives, water consumption can be reduced and it helps achieve substantially lower CO2 emissions during the building phase. This way our solutions contribute to the faster curing of concrete at lower temperatures. Additional heating to accelerate the curing process is then no longer necessary, which results in significant energy savings. Due to our additives, concrete is also better able to withstand shrinkage due to weather conditions such as frost, and therefore requires less maintenance.
Furthermore, our products facilitate the production of concrete surfaces that are far more dense, as a result of which concrete is less vulnerable to wear and tear, and external influences. This too extends the concrete's service life and therefore its sustainability.
“The application of our additives improves the CO2 footprint of a cubic metre of concrete, as well as its energy performance. We can specifically quantify this with our Life Cycle Analysis tool,” Pieter van Gent explains.
This insight is important for our clients and enables them to earn green building points, for example for BREEAM or LEED.
“This way we can jointly make a contribution to more sustainable concrete and a more sustainable economy,” says Pieter.

We make the results tangible in what we refer to as ‘Quantified Sustainable Benefits’. This way we make it clear that making concrete sustainable not only results in environmental benefits, it also produces solid savings for our clients. Think of the reduction in energy costs or the time gained in projects due to faster application.