Cement Australia is closing the gap between industry-average carbon data and verified, product-specific numbers to accelerate the decarbonisation of concrete. By developing ISO 14067 Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) for their two rapid growth supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) lines: fly ash and (GGBFS) slag, they are providing decision-ready data to their downstream customers.
The Purpose: Moving from Assumptions to Evidence
For too long, embodied carbon in concrete has been assessed using generic industry average values. As the market rapidly changes, customer expectations have sharpened; the pace of concrete mix innovation is increasing and customers are demanding verified, product-specific, input data for pre-sales and planning conversations with their own customers.
Cement Australia realised that relying on default values held in customers’ Excel spreadsheets was a friction point, hindering innovation and comparability for their concrete customers. This drove the need for a practical, usable method of carbon reporting beyond generic PDF reports, updated every five years.
“Customers want the latest data available for all of their raw materials, and we needed a method of carbon reporting that is not time or cost-prohibitive, and that customers and consultants can actually use directly in their own tools and mixes” says Martin Lynch, Product Development Manager, Cement Australia
The Process: A Verified PCF for SCMs
Cement Australia made a deliberate move to trial verified PCFs, starting with two critical Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs): fly ash and slag. The goal was simple: replace assumptions with specific, calculated numbers, make them available digitally for downstream customers within the Rebuilt platform.
As part of the process, Cement Australia sourced waste products from integrated production facilities and then calculated carbon emissions related to their processing of the material and logistics operations. This was treated as a crucial market test.
“It is an opportunity to trial. Now we can provide a verified carbon number for fly ash and slag that reflects our own supply chain. It’s conservative, assuming the longest routes between facilities, and it is using actual rather than default numbers.”
The Benefit of Rebuilt: Speed and Maintainability
Rebuilt provided the practical and credible pathway to produce verified PCFs quickly. This included critical support from the technical team and local specialists who helped fast-track the work.
“Having support from the tech team at Rebuilt mattered. Whilst the platform is user-friendly, having the local support was really integral to fast-tracking verified PCFs.”
The Rebuilt expert LCA team reviewed all the provided evidence. The expert reference panel reviewed their determinations. When the process was complete, the PCFs were added to the Rebuilt marketplace for anyone to use, and the data was added to the Rebuilt carbon management platform for concrete makers to be able to build their own mixes using the Cement Australia SCMs.
Just as important as publication is maintenance. The Rebuilt platform allows Cement Australia to access and edit the information directly, ensuring the carbon data remains current and reflecting any improvements in their operations without slow, manual handoffs.
The Benefit to Customers: Decarbonisation Made Practical
The result is verified, product-specific carbon data for fly ash and slag that customers can use instead of industry average values. This practical impact is immediate:
- Reduces Friction: Shortens the back-and-forth between suppliers and customers.
- Informs innovation: Informs early decision-making and trade-offs between carbon, price and application suitability without slowing down the project
- Drive decisions: Procurement and specification start with accessible, verified data, eliminating the need for bespoke spreadsheets.
For Cement Australia, the goal is not just compliance reporting but adoption that changes behaviour, making carbon decisions more practical and comparable across the industry.
“This is what good looks like, because it provides a method of carbon reporting that is not time or cost-prohibitive to the broader market. We would like to see our customers accepting PCFs for all of our products, including cement and cement blends.”
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