B.C. city mandates ‘green’ concrete for construction

December 3, 2021




Langford, most active city for home building on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, has mandated the use of carbon-reduced concrete for virtually all new construction starting in June 2022.
The city accounted for 40 per cent of total housing starts across Greater Victoria this year, including substantial multi-family rental and condominium projects.
In mid-November 2021, Langford city council rule that as of June 1, 2022 all concrete supplied for public and private construction projects in Langford requiring more than 50 cubic metres of concrete will have to be produced using carbon dioxide mineralization technologies, or an equivalent, that offers concrete with lower embodied carbon dioxide.
Virtually all projects requiring concrete will need to use a greener form of it. A 2,500-square-foot home with a basement, for example, uses about 60 cubic metres of concrete during construction.
Carbon mineralization technologies inject captured carbon dioxide into concrete during the mixing process, where carbon dioxide becomes permanently embedded, improving the concrete’s strength and resulting in a need for less cement in the mix to achieve the same performance.
Carbon is captured during the cement production process. Cement is the key ingredient in concrete and its production is responsible for about 7 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
According to industry experts, Langford is the first city in Canada to adopt this kind of policy. This policy will set a new standard for cities and could be the catalyst for similar policies in Canada.
To monitor the climate impact of building materials, Langford will require construction project teams to submit an environmental declaration that is third-party verified.