Home 5 The cement and concrete industry 5 Industry Overview

Industry

Overview

As makers of the most-consumed commodity on the planet after water, the Canadian cement and concrete industry shares a responsibility to find solutions to the challenges of climate change, a circular economy and sustainable construction.

Working to help build a better future

We’ve taken major steps that have reduced our carbon footprint and help lay the path to a net-zero concrete future by 2050, with targets for 2030 and 2040.

These goals can’t be achieved on our own. So, we continue to work collaboratively to innovate and develop new solutions that support a more sustainable built environment, sharing best practices that advance sustainable design and construction with governments across the country, members of the procurement, architecture, engineering and design community, and the construction sector.

A vital contributor to Canada’s economy

Concrete is produced locally, using local resources. Our industry is present in communities across the country, creating local jobs and supporting local economies. When combined, the cement and concrete industry’s contribution to the Canadian economy is estimated to be :

Canada

$76 billion

annually in direct, indirect 
and induced impact

+ 166,000

direct and indirect jobs

+ 1,000

number of locations

Our work on codes and standards

Our industry participates in national safety and standards committees to ensure that the use of cement and concrete solutions is well represented in codes and standards and that cement- and concrete-based innovations are codified and adopted in a timely fashion. We’re also working to foster more flexible performance-based codes and standards that boost confidence in new low-carbon and other upcoming technologies.

Advancing knowledge of sustainable concrete construction

Our industry continues to work to promote the intrinsic benefits of concrete construction, including concrete’s important role as a key component in safe, durable, and climate resilient housing and infrastructure. We raise awareness of the industry’s innovations and our path to net-zero concrete, promoting knowledge of best design practices with concrete for homes, industry, infrastructure and pavements. Our efforts are focused on working with owners, designers, architects, engineers, and builders to optimize the use of any of the numerous available lower embodied carbon concrete mix designs, in order to ensure that climate is at the forefront of where we all live, work and play.

Advancing understanding of best practices for concrete design

While reducing embodied carbon emissions is a priority for the cement and concrete industry, energy efficiency, long service life and material efficiency over the full life-cycle of a structure are essential factors in decarbonizing our built environment. Concrete makes our buildings more energy efficient, our roads more fuel-efficient and is 100% recyclable. It achieves all these low carbon advantages while maintaining its unparalleled design flexibility and performance, providing architects, designers and engineers enormous scope to meet project requirements in the most sustainable manner.

Our industry commitments