Cement producer PPC has taken the strategic decision to embrace alternative building technologies rather than oppose them, PPC South Africa MD Njombu Lekula has said.
Speaking at the Smart African Cities Summit held in Midrand on June 8, he said the company had set up a new department to specifically deal with improving operational efficiency through innovation aimed at new products and new methods, with a tangible focus on sustainability.
“As cement producers, we never wanted to hear about alternative building methods or technologies because it meant future buildings would not have cement.
“However, we have taken a view that it is about sustainability – not only of the environment but of the organisations that we work with,” Lekula said, adding that, if PPC wanted to be part of the future, it needed to embrace these alternative methods and technologies in the present.
In line with this, he said the company was actively looking at ways to use the extensive amount of ash waste generated from the company’s energy production processes.
Rather than disposing of the ash into dumps, as it had been done historically, Lekula said PPC was considering ways to incorporate the ash into next-generation building technologies and methods.
He explained that, rather than seeing the repurposing of ash waste as a decarbonisation issue only, PPC was choosing to also view it as a potential additional revenue stream.