1- Ralf Osswald, Holcim (Switzerland)

So, Ralph, we really look forward to your presentation, and particularly from the Hal Sim group, which is a leader, world leader in the cement business. Ralph, the floor is yours, please. Well, first of all good morning to everyone, them, and Tom and Jim. thank you for the great presentation and having us here. You know, it's always a pleasure to, to participate in this kinds of event now and be able to share a bit what whole SIM does worldwide. so thank you. Thank you for that. And thank you to everyone for participating in the, in the event now.

So, what I want to do now is to put actually carbon capturing and usage in the context of what wholesome really does worldwide and how that fits into into the overall strategy now that holds them, follows to decarbonize the company. So overall, we have to acknowledge at the end of the day that we have six mega trends. that brings huge opportunity to the market that has never been seen so far. so if we take the first one, non population is growing, you know, from around 8 billion to 10 billion to 2050, then we have a huge, huge urbanization effort going on now where we have approximately two and a half billion people coming to cities, to mega cities. You know, we see that all over the place.

well, yesterday we talked a little bit about New York, but beside New York, we have Mexico City today with 22 million habitats and every day coming in, new people into, into those city now. And that at the, at the end of the day, you know, imposes some important opportunities with relation to sustainable construction solutions. So if we look construction a bit broader way than only providing cement now that opens some new, new opportunity, at least for us now, and we have a clear trend, not for for better, better living standards. so we want to equalize that. And we have actually some nice initiatives related to affordable living and so on. Now for, for really people also in need.

Now that drives us also into innovation for new building technologies. So modularity, it's, it's a big topic. The reduction of of building materials as such. And then obviously if we have big cities, well, sometimes we have to repair assets, we have to repair roads, we have to repair construction. So that's what we see as the big, big mega trends going on in the, in the construction area. Now, with this, well, we all know that the wholesome at the end of the day present in 70 countries. we have around 2,300 operating sites.

So it's not only cement plants, it's also ready mix agate plants, but we're also very heavily involved in what we call call product and solutions that also present some interesting operations site. Now, overall, 60,000 people works in the, in the company and a net sales of around 29 billion Swiss francs. we did last year. from a decarbonization stand point of view we have around 21% reduction on the CO2 emission per net sales, you know, which is an important indicator today, especially for the for, for investors. everything, what we do, at the end of the day, it's science. It's based on the science based target terms.

So we really make sure that at the end of the day, targets that we set, initiatives that we set are, are, are based on, on science now. Okay. And we have also committed to the to the shareholding community until 2030 to allocate around 2 billion Swiss francs now for carbon capturing units worldwide. So if we go back to how we see decarbonization, you know, and there we see clearly four big, big topics. so the first one I want to focus on now is the one on the right side the top right side, you know, which is actually the the decarbonization of the construction. Yeah. 'cause at the end of the day, that's important.

Now we have three key brands in wholesale, you know, so we have Echo Pack that's for concrete. We have Echo Planet, which is for cement, and then we have newly launched echo Cycle brand. Now all of them are billion, so on sales, billion mil billion Swiss Fra worth brands. Huh. So what does that mean? At the end of the day, you know, that if we declare a product as Echo Pac or echoy echo Pac or Echo Planet, no, we will secure a reduction of around 30% of CO2 footprint on those product lines. You know, now we have Echo Pack, for instance, plus and the Ultra now, where we always have a reduction of another 20, 30% on the CO2 footprint.

So that's really an important topic an important strategic pillar that the, that the company is following. Then the, the next one, which is here on the, on the right side bottom, you know, it comes to decarbonizing and making actually building much more sustainable in time. You know, we, we know now at the end of the day that over the lifetime of a building now, we have a huge amount of energy being used during that time. And there's where our, our product and solution scheme actually plays an, an important role, you know, so we have brands like like Elevate, you know, like Mac karate, you know and so on, you know, that really focuses on insulating our buildings.

And so we have roofing in that. We have also other product lines like aerium, you know, that actually contributes in an important way on the isolation of, of buildings. The third one, it's a circular construction. Yeah. So actually it's to build from old stuff, new stuff. Yeah. Yesterday we had a small presentation on the construction demolition material. That's an important topic here. Yeah. So in, in Switzerland, around four or five years ago now, we developed a product called Sustaina that has around 20% of construction demolition material in there.

You know, that's something we are rolling out worldwide, you know, by 2025, we want to have worldwide around 10, 15 million tons of construction demolition material in our product range. And then last but not least, now it's green operations, and there were is where actually the decarbonization of our cement plants come, come in line now, and we'll see later on what are the, the key topics there. but only to, to, to give some indicators forward. for instance, we have already two countries, full countries that are operating with energy sourced. that's, that are completely carbon free. Okay. TSR important topic as we saw yesterday.

Now we have some plants that are running above 95, 90 8% of thermo substitution rate with alternative fuels. Now, at the same time, we have some of our operations with a very high rate on substitution of al with alternative decarbonized raw materials. So if we, we go back to what the cement plant is that's a very simple schematic. Now, at the end of the day, we have certain levels of CO2 emissions. so we have the incoming power, you know, depending a little bit on what grid you are in, you know, has a certain emission factor, then quarry, we know that around 40, between 40 to 60% of the CO2 emissions come from our raw materials.

So that's an important point now that we have the onsite vehicles. so we have to query materials. very often we use actually diesel to fuel that, not there are some alternatives, how to offset that. Then we have process emissions, yeah, which is the traditional cement kiln that we all know by, by heart. and then yeah, those other, the main IRD emissions from from our fuel com combustion now, now in order to be able to offset that. Now on the other side, we have some levers that we can activate in order to move forward and actually reduce the the CO2 emissions.

As, as I mentioned before, now we have Columbia, we have Switzerland with a high level with, with the incoming power being fully renewable, you know decarbonized material. I placed a photo here from our plant in Romania. Then we are using decarbonized raw materials in Romania, up to about 25% of the raw, raw material input into, into the plant. Now, then obviously once we are in the kiln system, so we have the carbon capture units now, but also we, we are able to mineralize certain materials in order to, to bring the, the CO2 footprint down now. And we have all kinds of energy efficiency now wasted to recovery. It's something extremely important. Now.

I saw a report the other day from the Department of Energy in the US now where they claim that on an industrial basis, the energy efficiency, it's only around 36%. Yeah. So huge opportunity there. If you looked at, in a, in a positive way. then we have, we see the, the change of technology to be able to produce clinker. Now, like the electrification, like usage of, of hydrogen alternative fuel is a, is a big lever. And then the mineral component as well as construction, demolition waste, and calcine clay becomes really important to bring down the CO2 footprint of our product range in the market now, and then build better with less now. So really to have high performing products.

So we do not have to use so much in, in in concrete or in other type of of application. the early we start actually with a decarbonization, you know, the better we are off and less we have to do later on. So it's a pretty simple strategy at the end of the day, but I think extremely effective. Now, from a targeting sta stand standpoint of view, we actually follow up very closely. Scope one and scope two. Yeah. And then you can see actually our, our roadmap now from five 90 that we had as net at s net CO2 emission in 2018. Now our target is to get to four 20 by 2030. And, and yeah, actually activating the different levers that we have here. the same is actually for scope two.

So pretty strong ambitious target not be able to reduce our CO2 emissions from a energy supply standpoint of, of us. Well now what we see underneath it's actually an application that we did in France, you know, close to Marse with Cal San Clay now today, all similar runs on a, in the market around three, three marketplaces already with Cal San Clay worldwide. Now if we go back to, to how or what is the, the re relevance relevance now of of the CCUS carbon capturing in our, in our operation? Well, it's quite significant now.

So what we see here is actually the 5%, you know, it's a reduction on CO2 on the, from an energy stand point of view 10% is coming from from the clinker factor that we see moving to towards net zero. 10% is coming also from the thermal substitution rate. So use of alternative fields and raw materials with a strong, strong focus, obviously on the, on biomass and this kind of of opportunities. And then around 40 per 44% we see as the the reduction, the improvement of the CO2 emission that has to be achieved through carbon capturing unit.

So at the end of the day, the big message here is, well, we have to have an integral way, you know, to address the po the different topics in order to be able to optimize really our efforts. so target that we have 20, 35 million tons of CO2 done with carbon capturing by 2050. It's 36 million out of the 83 million that we actually has as an emission in 2022. Now, carbon capturing, where are we?

So we have been focusing our efforts down to Europe and the us and why, because in Europe, while we have ETS, as we, as we learned yesterday, you know, big impact on on cost, big impact on future prices of our products and the US because in the US we, there are some specific opportunities out there in order to step into, into the business. so the most enigmatic project that we have is obviously lagado in Germany with 1.2 metric tons of CO2. So that's, it's going to be a carbon capturing used usage and storage. I don't know if everyone has heard about the project cus 100 now, where actually carbon will be used in together with hydrogen in order to produce kerosene for the airport in Hamburg.

That, that's, that's how the, the project actually was, was put in place. Now just after that we developed man stuff. Now that's a project that's in, in the works. then we have, and at the end of the presentation we'll see a few a little movie there now on in Belgium also 1.1 million ton of CO2 carbon capturing unit. Now also with, with an upgrade, with a technological upgrade of, of a plant. Now then s in Spain, very important place, you know, as we have access to the to the Mediterranean Sea. then the latest one is actually m lucky and national and Croatia and Greece also. Well, we a small plant in Croatia, but m Lucky and Greece, it's quite an important plant.

Now both of them are carbon capturing and sequestration projects. And in, and Poland. Now the largest plant that we have in the group today, it's San Genevieve in the us. Yeah. So that's sitting actually from a geological standpoint of view in a very privileged zone, you know, where carbon capturing and sequestration can be done quite easily. The same is in Colorado and in Canada. So what are the, the two key topics that we are, we're pursuing with carbon capturing? So here we have actually carbon capturing and storage. so you have a cement plant? Yeah. And the cement plant with different technologies available today.

And I think your liquid will be making a presentation after, afterwards, huh? But there are several technologies out there. You know, each one of the application of the technology will need to be tailored based on a specific plan. So it's not that you can go out no and say, Hey, I'm going to buy a standard modularized system, you know, that won't work. So it has to be done based on the, on the different, on the different requirements that you have at the different plants. So, but that's not enough, huh? So with carbon, once you capture that, you have to do something with that, you know, and there's where actually a partners come, come in place.

Now, since there is a high energy requirement to be able to run the carbon capturing units the with energy suppliers, with shipping companies and so on becomes paramount not to be able to put in place a real business case. Now those project to be prepared usually takes quite some time. It's not something that you do over overnight. No. And the value chain at the end of the day becomes absolutely critical.

if we go for a carbon capturing and use the thing becomes a little bit more complex, you know, because at the end of the day, well, what it is about now, it's to carbon to capture the CO2 CO2 combined with hydrogen and produce the basic in, in some of the hydrogen and carbon dioxane reactors in order to be able to do or e methanol, no, where it's high on shipping right now or will be, you know, sustainable fuel for aviation, you know, but you can go even further into plastic chemicals and so on. But there obviously the partnering up with people that have a similar value as ours is absolutely key. Otherwise it'll not not work. okay. So as a, as, as a, as a summary, no.

And key messages at the end of the day, no. Our one thing that we are looking for is progress for people and the planet. That's what really moves every single day. The 60,000 people that work at wholesale, you know, everyone is really aligned to look for solutions, you know, to be able to decarbonize the, the company now. So at the end of the day the deployment of initiatives, including not the carbon capturing and usage as well as sequestration, is absolutely key. So it has to be integrated. It's not a standalone project, no, it needs to be integrated at least for whole sim in order to be able to get to the net zero transition that we are all looking for now. then CCUI is scalable.

Obviously learning can be transmitted from one location to the other, considering that still you will need to have actually as individual solution for each one of the application and partnership is absolutely key. To find the right partners to, to, to run things like that is, is important. and then there is no one size fits all, you know, different sizes. They have different CO2 options and so on. So what you saw is actually the project that we have put in place for, for Belgium, you know, which is actually an upgrade of a, of an existing site with carbon tax carbon capturing technology moving forward. So I think with this I thank you so much.

Not that we're able to share our experiences and hope that it has been of benefit to, to the audience.