Three sustainable concrete musketeers have reached a milestone. In Roosendaal, they are building concrete homes that contain virtually no cement. It makes concrete much more climate-friendly, but the journey toward "Paris and mainstream" is bumpy and full of pitfalls. The trio tell their stories for the first time in the latest episode of the podcast Bureau Stoer.
Amsterdam gets an installation-free office. Roosendaal four homes made of concrete, which contains hardly any Portland cement. As a result, the CO2 performance of the walls and floors is significantly better than average.
The sustainable concrete initiative began about two years ago with an innovation manager, a flooring manufacturer and a concrete expert. What they have in common is that they have been trying for years to make concrete climate-neutral. They are Dick van Ginkel (TBI Woonlab), Ties van der Wal (VBI) and Niki Loonen (TBI).
Major breakthrough
"We call ourselves the three musketeers," says Van Ginkel in the latest episode of Bureau Stoer. In the podcast, the trio explains in detail how they came up with the idea, how they operated and what they encountered on their pioneering path. They talk about a "major breakthrough" in "concrete land," yet the phone is not yet ringing red hot.
From left to right: Niki Loonen, Thies van der Wal and Dick van Ginkel.
According to Van der Wal, this is because "ordinary concrete" is cheaper. Moreover, according to him, the government does not or hardly controls the CO2 performance of building products. In other words: It doesn't pay to build houses from cement-poor walls and floors. Van der Wal: "Portland cement poor, we professional brothers say (sits clinker, ed)."
Van Ginkel does note that this will soon change. According to him, the four houses in Roosendaal prove that cement-free construction is already possible in the Netherlands and that almost nothing stands in the way of scaling up, except the current standards and regulations.
"The road to this has taken a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears. And a 'shitload' of testing. Again and again we have to sit down with municipalities and the competent authority," said the innovation manager of TBI Woonlab.
The very first test pour of low-cement walls.
He hopes that Jacqueline Cramer, as chairman of the Concrete Accord, can make a case for low-cement concrete. Minister Elanor Boekholt O'Sullivan can also do her bit: "She can designate experimental space."
He himself is not sitting back either. Besides the houses in Roosendaal, there are two more projects in the pipeline. These too, however, will not happen without a struggle. "You just notice that the competent authority is very difficult about new developments," Van Ginkel experiences.
In lab already climate neutral
Concrete researcher Loonen has a love-hate relationship with concrete. "I am still ashamed of it every day, all the more reason to make an effort to make concrete more sustainable." Although he too speaks of "a milestone," he is already "a year and a half on" in the lab. "There we are already making climate-neutral concrete. I hope we can apply that in the first projects in a year or two."
Floor maker Van der Wal can't wait until the phone is red hot. Meanwhile, he is not sitting still either. Among other things, he is busy making hollow-core hollowcore floors even more "hollow". "Making it more sustainable starts with saving on the material itself," he says.
Curious about the whole story of the three sustainable concrete musketeers? Listen to the podcast here.
Want to know more about Bureau Stoer? Then look here.
