What you didn't know about cement and CO2

Most of us tend not to give much thought to the production of cement, pretty boring stuff really. However when you take into account that the production of cement accounts for 5% of the worlds man made CO2 emissions, we think it is time to take a closer look at cement and it's production.

In simple terms cement is manufactured by blending crushed limestone with calcium, silicon, aluminium and iron oxides and heating them to 1500 degrees Celsius in, you guessed it, a coal fired kiln.

The resulting product is then crushed to form common old grey cement.

It seems that a significant number of cement manufacturers have seen the carbon tax train coming and have got together to form the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). On the face of it this seems to be a good thing. The 18 manufacturers who make up the CSI account for around 40% of the world cement production and they are out to try and make things right.

Let's wait and see.