en.Wedoany.com Reported - Cemex UK has commissioned a government-funded shore power system at Shoreham Port in West Sussex, designed to eliminate the reliance of aggregate vessels on onboard diesel engines while in port. The demonstration vessel for this project is the "Cemex Go Innovation," powered by battery energy storage and renewable energy, representing an example of the company's contribution to its Mexican parent company's "Future in Action" program, which was launched globally in 2020. The project aligns with Shoreham Port's sustainability goals.
The UK Department for Transport provided nearly £1.7 million in funding for the system, with project participants including Cemex UK, iconsys, and the University of Warwick. The system comprises a smart shore power microgrid using iconsys' iConvert technology, battery energy storage, and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, delivering 250 kW of constant power to vessels during berthing, simulating high-demand conditions while reducing fossil fuel consumption. In addition to CO₂ reductions during aggregate unloading, the project will also help improve local air quality at Shoreham Port.
The installation and demonstration phase of the project began in April 2024 and lasted 12 months. After receiving planning approval last year for the permanent operation of the shore power system at Shoreham Port, Cemex UK is now working with partners to fully validate the technology and assess the potential for rolling it out to other UK ports.
Miranda Clegg, Sustainability Manager at Cemex UK, stated that the company's focus on sustainability has undergone a noticeable shift, with the topic now positioned prominently on the agenda. She noted that Cemex UK has set specific targets for reducing CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement in advancing its 2050 net-zero ambition and 2030 interim goals. The UK's current CO₂ emissions are approximately 44% lower than 1990 levels.
Key initiatives driving the company's progress include scaling up mature technologies and innovations, such as increasing alternative fuel substitution rates—currently around 72%—through methods like injecting hydrogen into cement kilns. Cemex UK is deploying HiiROC's thermal plasma electrolysis (TPE) technology at its Rugby cement plant to produce low-carbon hydrogen at industrial scale. The company has also refocused the original six pillars of "Future in Action" into two: "Smart Decarbonisation" and "Responsible Nature," offering biodiversity net gain services, as well as circular economy initiatives focused on material reuse and remediation.
Clegg cited a quarry restoration project as an example of the "Responsible Nature" pillar in practice: the company transported restoration materials by rail from major infrastructure projects to two quarries, keeping approximately 100,000 vehicles off the roads, with around one million tonnes of waste soil used for site restoration. In terms of industry collaboration, Cemex UK works with competitors through the Mineral Products Association (MPA) on policy, advocacy, and regulatory support, with Lex Russell, Managing Director of Materials at Cemex UK, serving as MPA Chair.
Clegg explained that Cemex UK can leverage global-scale support while having access to the "Vertua" low-carbon product portfolio and the "Future in Action" program. The company also provides customers with carbon emissions data for their specific concrete mix designs through Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and a CO₂ calculator, and can adjust mix designs to lower carbon levels where technical performance requirements are met. In community engagement, the company has shifted in recent years from a centralized approach to a localized one, working with neighboring communities around its approximately 200 sites and maintaining partnerships with local schools.
In terms of technology applications, Cemex UK has rolled out automatic water meter readers, installing small transmitters on main water meters across multiple sites, with data automatically uploaded to a portal. Clegg revealed that some sites had previously reported water usage hundreds of times higher than actual consumption. Water usage data, along with electricity and fuel consumption, is used for environmental footprint reporting, which is shared monthly with all sites. The company is also exploring artificial intelligence pilots and studying enhancements to its customer-facing Cemex GO digital platform.
Clegg has held her current role for six years and has been with Cemex for approximately 19 years, having previously worked in waste management at WRG (now FCC) and the Environment Agency. She noted that insufficient regulatory resources are one of the major challenges facing the industry, with lengthy permit processing times affecting business operations, and expressed a desire for a more realistic regulatory system that allows trusted companies to self-regulate, enabling the Environment Agency to concentrate resources on genuine environmental violations. She believes the success of sustainability should be measured by how deeply it is embedded in the company culture, including new employees' understanding of relevant targets and the increase in customer sustainability inquiries. From now until 2030, the company will intensify the promotion of Vertua products, drive customer adoption of the CO₂ calculator, and continue advancing hydrogen injection efforts.
