Building materials of the future. Structural concrete mortar

De Hoop Betonmortel in Terneuzen supplied the structural concrete mortar for the foundation and floors of Elopak's high-rise warehouse in Terneuzen. "We prefer to be around the table with the contractor right from the start," he says.

The ready mixed concrete manufacturer supplied over 3,000 m3 of concrete for this project. Henk van Holten, commercial manager of De Hoop Terneuzen's concrete mortar business, said, "We work with this contractor more often and the execution is always excellent."

Raw materials are scarce, prices are rising, and that calls for creative solutions. Van Holten: "We also use sea material instead of river material. Cement is also an important factor: since this year there is a European CO2 tax on it, which makes it more expensive."

Quick wins

Cement causes considerable CO2 emissions in both extraction and production. The purpose of the extra tax is to get builders to look at alternative materials. But these are not yet sufficient for the scale at which we in the Netherlands
use concrete mortar, Van Holten believes. "We are actively researching building materials of the future. We do this both independently and together with our industrial partners. Reducing the proportion of cement in compositions is an example of this. Then it does take longer to reach strength. So we prefer to sit down with the contractor as early as possible. We need to become even sharper in the construction chain to take advantage of these quick wins."

In this project, the choice was made to use less cement in the workfloor concrete. An additional advantage: using less cement also saves costs.

Within De Hoop Terneuzen, sustainability is an important theme. "We are working on that every day. Because many of our activities take place regionally, our logistics footprint is relatively small. We also use electric concrete mixers and, together with the Dutch Forestry Commission, we plant one hundred hectares of forest to offset our CO2 emissions. In addition, we actively try to make our contribution by solving obstacles we encounter, partly together with other chain partners."