Australian Low Carbon Concrete Centre Scoping Study

To help Australia’s cement and concrete industry rise to the decarbonisation challenge and ensure a successful transition to low carbon concrete, the idea of a Research Centre of Excellence was born.

In 2021 La Trobe University, with support of the SmartCrete CRC, undertook a feasibility study that provided a comprehensive and practical view of what’s involved in establishing and operating a Research Centre of Excellence that supports the development of low carbon concrete in Australia. The project team invested and addressed four key questions:

• Why is a Low Carbon Concrete Centre necessary?
• Who are the customers and how can they be reached?
• What are the products and services to influence the transition? What does value the Centre offer?
• How does a potential operating model look like?

After consulting with industry stakeholders, the team concluded that there is a need for a Low Carbon Concrete Centre. Operating across Australia’s concrete value chain, the Centre would act as a conduit that informs, influences and acts on decarbonising concrete. Equipped with cutting-edge R&D infrastructure, it would function as a testbed for businesses, where they could assess and test new material ideas and products. Ideally, the Centre would improve both the efficiency and certainty of new product development and provide confidence to Government and industry of the efficacy (from both engineering and carbon intensity perspectives) of low concrete-based products.