Translations

CEMEX creates innovative products for customers and reduces buildings’ environmental impact

4. Environment

Construction

Sector Construction / Estate Agency

Year 2010

Country Mexico

Transmitter

Context

CEMEX is the world's largest building materials supplier and third largest cement producer. Founded in Mexico in 1906, the company is based in Monterrey, Mexico. CEMEX has operations extending around the world, with production facilities in 50 countries in North America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

CEMEX has a rich history of improving the well-being of those it serves through its efforts to pursue innovative industry solutions to promote a sustainable future. While the building materials industry satisfies essential shelter and infrastructure needs, CEMEX works to minimize the negative local and global impacts of their operations on people and the world, such as workplace- related fatalities and incidents, air emissions, noise and vibration, and impacts on the land from the extraction of raw materials.

Objectives

To serve the needs of customers while reducing energy costs and environmental impacts.

APPROACH

To enhance their performance, in 2009 CEMEX launched a new area to develop and foster a culture of innovation across their company. This global function coordinates several global initiatives to advance collaboration among experts from all of their business units around high-priority areas related to competitiveness, impact reduction, and stakeholder outreach. These initiatives focus primarily on reducing energy use, increasing the use of alternative fuels, improving customer service, and promoting the development of new ready-mix products for use in sustainable construction projects.

In Spain, the facades of buildings require special thermal insulation and protection against humidity. To respond to this need, CEMEX launched a new product named Thermur, a multi-layer construction system formed by panels of insulating expanded polystyrene and mortars. This system significantly reduces the environmental impact of the building.

In Ireland, CEMEX works with Our Lady and St. Patrick’s School in Belfast which had some special requirements. Flowing screed for the school’s floor needed to be placed in a short time frame and on a tight budget. CEMEX responded with Supaflo anhydrite flowing screed because of its rapid drying time, lighter weight, and excellent thermal conductivity. Supaflo has flexible strength up to six times greater than traditional cement-based screeds. This strength allows the product to be placed substantially thinner, generating multiple advantages for customers, such as: weight reductions of up to 40%, significant energy savings due to improved thermal conductivity, and savings because of less use of material. The product also has drying and curing speeds up to 50% faster than traditional screeds.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Thermur is characterized by properties and advantages that no other product in the marketplace offers, such as durability, fire resistance, acoustic isolation, and decorative use.

Benefits

Thermur reduces energy costs by as much as 35% during a building’s lifetime, thereby reducing its CO2 emissions.
Significant energy savings due to Superflo’s improved.