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:
Over 1,000 facilities in virtually every community across Canada.
More than 62,000 direct and indirect jobs and over $5 billion in direct economic impact.
In 2024, the Canadian cement and concrete sector contributed an estimated $5.1 BILLION to Canadian wages and salaries and more than $500 million in production and product taxes to provincial or federal governments.
By provinces:
Alberta
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British Columbia
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Manitoba
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Ontario
billion annually in direct, indirect and induced economic impact
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Atlantic Canada
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Québec
billion annually in direct, indirect and induced economic impact
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Saskatchewan
billion annually in direct, indirect and induced economic impact
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Atlantic Canada
billion annually in direct, indirect and induced economic impact
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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.
Concrete products
Concrete is vital to our daily lives and our communities. There are concrete products for all types of applications and construction needs.
Concrete is an indispensable part of our communities, from our homes, schools, and hospitals to our rapid-transit systems, bridges, renewable energy, wastewater treatment plants and other vital infrastructure. There are concrete products for all types of applications and construction needs. Each and every one of these products shares concrete’s innate sustainability attributes.
Cast-in-place and ready-mixed concrete
Cast-in-place (CIP) concrete is transported in a plastic state as ready-mixed concrete and deposited in forms on site, with each batch tailor-made according to the specifications of the designer.
It can be used for nearly all types of concrete elements, including foundations, slabs-on-the-ground, walls, beams, columns, floors, roofs and pavements. Its cast-in-place nature makes it an excellent solution for free-forming concrete into a variety of shapes, spans, and forms. Cast-in-place concrete can be post-tensioned, resulting in thinner structural slabs, material efficiency, and greater flexibility of the interior spaces.
Cast-in-place concrete is also used for insulating concrete forms, tilt-up concrete, and shotcrete. It is always produced in close proximity to its use, typically within 60 kilometers of the job site.
Cast stone and stone veneered precast concrete panels
Cast stone is a manufactured precast product that gives the appearance of a variety of natural building stones and — when compared to natural limestone — shows many benefits:
- It is easy to customize, which helps limit energy use and waste on site.
- It can contain recycled materials such as supplementary cementitious materials, recycled glass, or other recycled aggregates.
- With care in deconstruction, many cast stone elements can be repurposed and reused.
Applications range from the simplest windowsills to spandrel panels, and to the most complicated architectural elements. Cast stone also helps to mitigate the heat-island effect, typically being manufactured with white Portland cement.
Stone veneer-faced precast concrete panels offer many benefits. These include:
- Veneer can be used in thinner sections since anchoring points to precast panel may be placed closer together.
- Multi plane units such as column covers, spandrels with integral soffit and sill sections, deep reveal window frames, inside and outside corners, projections and setbacks, and parapet sections are more economically assembled as veneer units on precast concrete panels.
Veneered precast concrete panel systems permit faster enclosure, allowing earlier work by other trades and subsequent earlier occupancy, because each large panel incorporates a number of veneer pieces. - Veneered precast concrete panels can be used to span column-to-column, thereby reducing floor-edge loading and eliminating elaborate temporary scaffolding.
- Smaller stone inserts can be cast as “highlights” in larger precast panels.
Insulating Concrete Forms
Insulating concrete forms (ICFs) are an integrated insulated wall form system where the forms stay in place, providing a continuous thermal and air barrier. Since they are used with cast-in-place concrete, they allow for flexibility in design. They are lightweight and can be recycled. Like in other concrete applications, insulating forms are durable and last many years. The foam forms stay in place once the concrete is placed, offering a continuous thermal and air barrier and thus providing significant energy savings. Concrete’s thermal mass reduces the effect of temperature spikes outside a building on the temperature inside the building. The resulting lower demand on the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems means the size of this equipment can be reduced as well. The exposed concrete walls in this application make it ideal for use in passive solar designs.
Interlocking Concrete Pavements
Interlocking concrete pavements (ICP) are used in a wide range of applications from pedestrian pavements like residential patios and walkways, municipal sidewalks, plazas, roof decks, driveways, parking lots, municipal streets, ports and airports. ICP is a cost-effective pavement with a wide range of colours and textures to fit into traditional or modern architecture. ICP provides a human scale and character to residential, commercial, or urban street settings while structurally capable of supporting the heaviest loads.
Also closely related to interlocking concrete pavement are concrete slabs and concrete grids. Use of larger concrete slab paving continues to grow in pedestrian load residential, roof, municipal plaza and sidewalk applications. Concrete grid pavements can be used to provide a cool, green surface solution for vehicular access lanes, emergency access areas, and overflow parking areas.
Masonry
Concrete masonry is used in a broad array of applications from residential foundations to commercial structures to hardscape. It has the flexibility of incorporating high quantities of supplementary cementitious material in its mixture. Concrete masonry is typically produced locally, using locally available materials, reducing energy demands and emissions associated with the transportation of raw materials to the manufacturing plant and the finished product to the job site.
The thermal mass of concrete masonry significantly influences heat transmission. Masonry systems are adaptable to many uses as they have many design variables, one being the thickness of the wall: a variety of insulation products can easily be attached to the walls, increasing the R-value of the product with a naturally high thermal mass and contributing to the flexibility of the wall thickness. Like other concrete products, concrete masonry is durable, resilient, does not burn, and requires very low maintenance — when properly designed and constructed, concrete masonry is virtually maintenance-free for a hundred years or more. The inherent durability of concrete masonry also permits existing construction to be rehabilitated to new uses while reusing much of the original core structure. When a concrete masonry structure has reached the end of its service-life, it can be crushed to create rubble and used in other applications.
Pipe
Concrete is the solution of choice for culverts and pipes. Concrete pipe, boxes, and manholes provide a long service life, resist corrosion and are highly resistant to fire. Precast products help restore natural hydrology of an area and direct water flow to recharge aquifers. They can be used in stormwater management applications, reducing pollutants and storing runoff in irrigation or retention systems and special designs can help control erosion. Due to its structural capacity, concrete pipe and precast structures provide accelerated construction in addition to the ability to utilise native soils thereby reducing the carbon footprint of your project.
Prefabricated modular precast prestressed concrete
Prefabricated modular precast concrete is a type of concrete that is prepared, cast and cured off-site in a controlled CPCQA certified factory environment, using reusable and sizeable moulds. Precast concrete components like: exterior architectural wall panels, double wythe insulated wall panels, interior wall panels, hollowcore roof and floor slabs, beams, double tees, and solid slabs can be used separately as building elements or joined together to form a complete structure (Total Precast Concrete). Precast prefabricated Accelerated Building /Bridge Construction (ABC) is an advanced construction technology compared to traditional construction. Prefabricated modular components lend themselves to fast, cost-effective and environmentally friendly construction while remaining virtually maintenance free for years to come.
For more information on prefabricated modular precast concrete, visit Learn on Demand, a continuing series of 24/7/365 interactive educational courses or www.cpci.ca.
