Do I have to tell you that concrete is hard?

Technological innovation is awesome to behold. But cool technology on its own is rarely enough to make for a successful product or company. This is the unfortunate reality in the climate tech world, where companies developing technologies with the potential to help decarbonize our economy can face strong headwinds.

This is surely the case in the global market for cement and concrete, materials that contribute some 7% of humans’ greenhouse gas emissions. There are a variety of technologies that hold the promise of producing cement and concrete with far lower emissions. But the companies developing these technologies tend to be hampered by a dilemma: to scale up production and drive down cost sufficient to compete with conventional cement and concrete, they need buyers; most buyers, on the other hand, are not interested until costs come down. (Buyers have other concerns as well, such as assurance of compliance with building codes.)

We recently took a close look at the leading technologies for decarbonizing cement and concrete production. If you want to get up to speed quickly on the tech landscape in this area, I recommend you read through this short piece. I've pasted a chart from that piece below.

Encouraging news for those in favor of avoiding the worst effects of global warming: leaders in the public and private sector are working on overcoming the dilemma I described above. The United States Department of Energy, for one, is studying what it will take for key climate techs  to achieve “commercial liftoff.” In the case of low-carbon cement production, the DOE sees a key role for the government: "Liftoff for all technologies will hinge on creating a strong demand signal from coordinated low-carbon procurement--a signal that may come from the government through public procurement."

And just last month, a new alliance of low-carbon cement pioneers announced the formation of The Decarbonized Cement and Concrete Alliance (DC2) to advocate for policies that push the public sector to buy low-carbon products for buildings and infrastructure projects.

It’s too early to judge the impact of the DC2. But low-carbon cement, like other climate tech markets, is likely to need some help achieving commercial liftoff.

What do think? Should the government commit to buying low-carbon cement? What other means of jump-starting markets like this have you seen?

cc:

Joe Hicken

Connor Woodrich

Simon G. Brandler

Bert Bruggeman

Laura Berland-Shane

Sal Brzozowski

Gregory Houchins

Sarah Williams, PhD

Daniel Kopp

Dilip Krishna

Uri Fishelson

Andrea Culligan

Adriaan Davidse

Michael Raynor

Scott L. Corwin