Ecocem is Europe’s largest independent specialist producer of GGBS (Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag) cement with a capacity of 2.4 million tonnes. Significant developments in the organisation have seen a growing interaction across its operating regions in Ireland, Holland, France, UK and Sweden, as well as the emergence of new product opportunities following 3 to 4 years of innovation work.

The Ecocem Group have grown to be the European leaders in the production and use of GGBS cement. In order to capture this change, Ecocem is rebranding across the group.

Ecocem Ireland is an independent specialist producer of GGBS cement for use in the manufacture of high-quality, low carbon concrete. Ecocem Ireland is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ecocem Materials (also an Irish company) and operates a technologically advanced, purpose built facility in Dublin Port.

Direct from this facility, the company supplies GGBS cement in bulk road tankers to customers nationwide and well as in 25kg bags to users all across Ireland and the UK. It is their mission to lead the way in the production and use of environmentally friendly cement.

The company has been on an innovation journey over the course of the last number of years. The journey has enabled significant change in the Group and the rebrand has been timed to tie in with Group integration and new product launches.

At the heart of the Ecocem brand is the concept of high quality and precision. The monogram icon was chosen to signify this approach. Combination of the letters “eco” – the circular shapes coming together as one represent the various stages of a project and the icon is reminiscent of focus and a focal point.

At the heart of Ecocem is innovation and environmental sustainability. The company tagline highlights this – Innovation Powering Sustainability.

Micheál McKittrick, Managing Director for Ecocem Ireland commented: “It is an exciting time for the Ecocem Group as there are many areas that we are working on that will offer more and more opportunities for our customer to use GGBS within their market offerings”. This will cover areas as diverse as readymix, dry silo mortars, tile adhesives, screed, shotcrete, precast, roof tiles, piling and soil stabilisation. Many of these opportunities will be in areas that perhaps have not traditionally seen the benefits/usage of GGBS heretofore. The potential to now achieve this is down to the work carried out by the Ecocem Innovation team over the last number of years. In some of these areas, experts within the industry would have considered it almost impossible to have solutions comprising significant quantities of GGBS. This is all about to change through the introduction of a range of innovation products.

The tag line associated with the rebrand is “Innovation Powering Sustainability” – and Ecocem certainly have the capability of achieving this. To put the sustainability aspects of the product in figures – one tonne of GGBS has a carbon footprint if approximately 42kg CO2/tonne. The figure for traditional cement is approximately 850-900 kg CO2/tonne. Therefore a 95% carbon saving is achieved with the substitution of traditional cement with Ecocem’s GGBS.

McKittrick notes “The rebrand of Ecocem Ireland (which is tied in with a rebrand across the group) is an indication of the revised focus of the group over the coming years. We have an exciting period ahead where we will be able to bring targeted solutions to customers across Ireland and the UK. R&D Investment is core to the achievements within the group and will remain so going forward”.