Not Set in Concrete

Coauthored with Anish Tilak, Audrey Rempher, and Satyam Maharaj from RMI

Concrete, the building block of modern society, has an enormous carbon footprint, largely resulting from one ingredient: cement. The cement industry, one of the most emissions-intensive heavy industries, accounts for nearly 7 percent of all global anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Since concrete maintains its position as one of the most widely used materials worldwide, decarbonizing the concrete sector—especially cement production—is critical to reaching climate targets. 

In the United States, public sector consumption generates billions of dollars of domestic demand for concrete materials to build and maintain our nation’s infrastructure. Manufacturers are ready to invest in innovative technologies to reduce the environmental impact of construction materials, and a strong public procurement signal for clean construction materials can support domestic innovation and reindustrialization. This is where advance market commitments (AMCs) come in. 

AMCs allow purchasers to aggregate demand and unlock private sector capital for producers to invest in clean manufacturing processes. State and city-level procurement represent a substantial portion of concrete use, and leveraging AMCs in the public sector has immense potential to catalyze the market for novel low-carbon concrete materials and technologies.

This issue brief examines AMCs as a policy tool, exploring where they have been successful and how they could be applied to support the decarbonization of the concrete value chain. The brief identifies barriers and enablers in the deployment of AMCs and presents a five-year framework, outlining practical steps aimed at implementing a successful AMC from the public sector for concrete.