Lafarge Africa to address construction demolition materials’ wastage

Lafarge Africa Plc has begun collaboration with Innovate UK to drive an open innovation challenge through the Global Alliance Africa project.

The partnership aims to assist Lafarge Africa in discovering creative circular economy initiatives for utilising Construction Demolition Materials (CDM) in addressing material waste and climate change challenges. In doing so, Lafarge Africa emphasises its dedication to making substantial contributions to the decarbonisation of the construction industry.

The initiative targets three key objectives: creating digital tools to locate cementitious CDM sources, securing these sources in urban settings, and enhancing local technologies for processing and recycling these materials.

The Group Managing Director, Lafarge Africa, Lolu Alade-Akinyemi, said: “We are a building solutions company committed to sustainability, innovation and operational excellence. We are reducing carbon emissions by fostering innovative ideas and technologies to facilitate sustainable transformation within the construction industry.

“To make a positive impact on the construction sector, we are seeking creative circular ideas for utilising CDM to address material waste and climate change challenges to contribute to decarbonisation.”

According to him, Lafarge Africa and Global Alliance Africa are seeking sustainable, local solutions rather than importing raw materials, and are actively engaged in research and development to make recycled materials more reactive and valuable.

Open Innovation Lead, Babar Javed, explained that the goal of Global Alliance Africa’s Open Innovation intervention is to help large companies find innovative solutions to technical problems that their traditional supply chains cannot solve.

“Using our bespoke platform, we match real industry problems with innovative companies or academic institutions, who can provide novel, market-ready solutions. We are delighted to be working with Lafarge Africa to find innovative solutions for the recycling of CDM.”

Javed said the pilot project will start in Lagos to scale to other states in the long term. The winner of the innovation challenge will pitch to Lafarge Africa and will be invited to collaborate with them on a trial project.