Address on Occasion of World Environment Day, 5 June 2026 at Dalmia Cement
Ajay Mathur
Professor, School of Public Policy, IIT Delhi
Introduction: The Paradox of the Foundation
Good morning, leadership team, brilliant engineers, scientists, and the entire Dalmia Cement family.
On World Environment Day, we are bombarded with global statistics, sweeping promises, and corporate slogans. But today, I don’t want to talk to you in vague abstractions. I want to talk about the literal material of human civilization. I want to talk about cement.
Look around us. Every school that empowers a child, every bridge that connects a rural village to a bustling market, every hospital that saves lives, and every skyscraper defining our modern skylines is built on the foundation of what you create. Cement is the literal foundation of human progress. It has lifted millions out of poverty and provided shelter to billions.
But as creators of this foundation, we live with a profound, daily paradox.
The very material that builds our future is also one of the heaviest burdens on our planet’s atmosphere. Globally, the cement industry accounts for roughly 7% to 8% of all carbon dioxide emissions. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter in the world, right behind China and the United States.
The world faces an existential challenge: How do we continue to build the shelter and infrastructure humanity desperately needs without destroying the very climate that sustains us?
That is the question of our generation. And that is exactly why I am standing in this room today. Because while the rest of the world is just starting to wake up to this paradox, Dalmia Cement has spent years proving that we don’t have to choose between progress and the planet.
Part 1: Moving Beyond Rhetoric to Reality
Most corporate sustainability speeches are full of goals set for the year 2050. Why 2050? Because it’s safely far away. It belongs to a future generation of executives.
But Dalmia didn’t play that game. You didn’t wait for the pressure to mount. Years ago, you looked at the climate data and made a bold, historic announcement: a commitment to become a net-zero carbon company by 2040.
You didn’t just move the goalposts closer; you fundamentally redefined what a heavy manufacturing company could achieve. You became the first cement company in the world to join the RE100 initiative, committing to 100% renewable electricity. You joined EP100, pledging to double energy productivity.
And you didn’t just leave these as PDFs on a website. You changed the recipe of how cement is made.
While the global average for clinker factor—the carbon-heavy ingredient in cement—remains stubbornly high, Dalmia pioneered some of the lowest clinker factors in the industry by mastering blended cements using slag and fly ash. You took the waste products of other industries and transformed them into the strength of our infrastructure. That isn’t just recycling; it is industrial ecology in action.
Because of your efforts, a bag of Dalmia cement has a carbon footprint that is significantly lower than the global average. You have proven that “green cement” isn’t an oxymoron. It is a commercially viable, structurally superior reality.
Part 2: The Hard Road Ahead – The Next Frontier
But on World Environment Day, true peers and collaborators don’t just pat each other on the back for yesterday’s victories. We have to look honestly at the steep mountain left to climb.
Getting to a low carbon footprint is an incredible achievement. Getting to absolute zero is a completely different beast.
As the engineers and scientists in this room know all too well, we cannot solve cement’s carbon problem simply by switching to solar power or driving electric trucks. More than 60% of the emissions in cement manufacturing don’t come from the electricity we buy or the coal we burn to heat the kilns. They come from the chemical reaction itself—the calcination of limestone. When we turn CaCO_3 into CaO, the physics of our universe dictates that CO_2 is released.
We cannot change the laws of chemistry. So, how do we cross the finish line to net-zero?
The answer lies in the next frontier of innovation, and it relies entirely on the minds in this room. There are three – and in my view – four parallel efforts to bring the carbon emissions to zero.
- The first is Revolutionizing Alternative Fuels: We must push our Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) to the absolute absolute limit. Every piece of municipal solid waste, every agricultural residue, and every bit of industrial hazardous waste we safely consume in our high-temperature kilns is a double victory. It diverts waste from India’s choking landfills and replaces fossil coal. I have worked with you and the CMAI to enable the inter state movement of wastes, and will continue to do so.
- The second is Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS): Since we cannot stop the chemical creation of CO_2, we must trap it before it escapes. Dalmia’s pilots into carbon capture are a fantastic start, but we need to accelerate. We need to find ways to take captured carbon and mineralize it back into concrete, turn it into synthetic fuels, or store it safely. We must become a carbon management company, not just a cement company.
- And the third is Circular Economy at Scale: We need to look at construction and demolition waste not as debris, but as the raw material for tomorrow’s clinker. Reclaiming old concrete and recycling it back into the loop is the ultimate definition of closing the circle.
- In my view, the fourth is Biomimicry: I will spend the longest time on this – as it represents some of the technologies that may become the future.
Lets see how nature builds strong structures, and what we can learn from them. Translating these biomimetic concepts into industrial-scale cement manufacturing requires moving from controlled laboratory environments to the harsh, high-volume realities of commercial production. There are several biomemetic processes under development; to evaluate their readiness, we can look at their Technology Readiness Level (TRL)—ranging from TRL 1 (basic principles) to TRL 9 (proven in full commercial operations)—alongside their yield time, which represents the timeframe for widespread market availability and economic viability.
- The first is Microbial Self-Healing Concrete
This is currently the most technologically mature biomimetic solution on the market with a TRL: 8 to 9 (Commercial Deployment) and a Yield Time: Current to 2 years.
Commercial products (such as Basilisk, developed out of TU Delft) are already available as additives, repair mortars, or self-healing structural concrete layers.
So whats the bottleneck: The current hurdle is not technical viability, but cost and standardization. Bacterial additives increase initial material costs by roughly 30% to 40%. The immediate yield is seen in specific, high-moisture infrastructure applications—like basements, tunnels, and water retaining structures—where the premium is offset by eliminating future maintenance costs.
b. Bio-Mineralized Aggregates (Coral-Inspired)
Instead of replacing the cement binder itself, this approach focuses on replacing the aggregate (sand and gravel), which makes up 60% to 80% of concrete’s volume. The TRL: 6 to 7 (Large-Scale Pilots / Early Commercialization) and the Yield Time is 2 to 5 years for localized commercial scaling.
Companies like Blue Planet have moved past the bench scale and are operating pilot facilities. They produce synthetic limestone aggregates by coating a substrate with thin layers of mineralized CO_2 captured from industrial flue gases.
The Bottleneck is Scaling. This technology requires massive volumes of calcium-rich industrial waste (like steel slag or demolished concrete) and localized access to concentrated CO_2 streams. It is a highly localized solution that yields rapid carbon-mitigation returns when co-located with heavy industry, but it will take another half-decade to become a standard global supply chain alternative.
c. Low-Energy Bio-Calcification (MICP Bricks & Binder)
Using bacteria like Sporosarcina pasteurii to grow structural blocks at ambient temperature without a kiln. This is at the pre- commercial demonstration stage, and the TRL is 5 to 6. The Yield Time is 5 to 8 years for structural applications; 1 to 3 years for non-structural.
Companies like BioMason have successfully commercialized grown biological masonry units (biominerals grown in a mold over a few days) for architectural tiles and pedestrian pavers.
The current bottleneck is scaling this from pre-cast, non-structural blocks to a pourable, ready-mix cement replacement that can perform reliably on a traditional construction site. The “yield time” for poured-in-place MICP is much longer because the biological curing process requires specific moisture, oxygen access, and nutrient distribution that is difficult to control uniformly in a deep structural pour.
d. Enzymatic Additives & Abalone-Inspired Matrices
The fourth biomimetic process integrates enzymes like carbonic anhydrase to accelerate carbonation to mimic molecular “brick-and-mortar” structural micro-layers.
The technology is at the applied lab validation stage, and is at TRL: 3 to 4, with a Yield Time of 8 to 12+ years
These concepts remain primarily within academic and corporate R&D labs. While synthetic enzymes have successfully accelerated CO_2 uptake in small-scale mortar samples, synthesizing these enzymes at an industrial scale and ensuring they survive the highly alkaline, turbulent environment of a concrete mixer remains a significant challenge.
Currently, the high cost of enzymatic production and a lack of long-term durability data is the major bottleneck. Building codes change slowly and require decades of testing before an entirely new molecular binder matrix is permitted for structural, load-bearing elements.
Part 3: The Indian Imperative
Let’s ground this challenge in our home. India is growing at a breathtaking, unprecedented pace. Over the next two decades, millions of our citizens will move into urban areas. We are building highways, metro systems, affordable housing complexes, and massive renewable energy grids.
India must build. It is a moral imperative for the development of our people.
But if India builds its future using the carbon-heavy methods of the past century, the global climate battle is lost. It is as simple as that.
This gives Dalmia Cement a unique, historic responsibility. You are not just manufacturing building materials for a profit. You are creating the blueprint for how a developing nation grows sustainably. Every time you optimize a kiln, every time you successfully deploy a new low-carbon blend, you are providing a case study for the global South.
You are proving to the world that a nation does not have to sacrifice its environment to achieve economic dignity for its people.
Conclusion: A Legacy Carved in Stone
To the frontline workers at our plants, to the logistics teams optimizing our routes, to the researchers tweaking chemical formulations, and to the leadership steering the ship:
Sustainability is not a department at Dalmia. It cannot be an isolated office down the hall. It must be the lens through which every single decision is made. When an engineer looks at a machine, when a procurement officer buys raw materials, when a salesperson pitches to a builder—the question must always be: How does this get us closer to our 2040 promise?
Centuries ago, builders constructed monuments out of stone and mortar that outlasted their lifetimes. Today, the structures built with Dalmia Cement will stand for the next fifty, one hundred, or two hundred years.
Let the legacy of our generation not just be the strength of the concrete we left behind, but the purity of the air we preserved while making it. Let it be said that when the world stood at a climate crossroads, Dalmia Cement didn’t just build walls—they built a pathway to a cleaner, safer, and infinitely brighter planet.
Thank you, Happy World Environment Day, and let’s keep building the future.
References
Baral, A. (n.d.). Guidelines for implementing Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies on TxDOT projects. Texas Department of Transportation Research Repository.
Kriegh, J. (2021). Transformative carbon-storing materials: Accelerating an ecosystem. Carbon Leadership Forum, Builders for Climate Action.
Meikle, G. (2022). Carbon utilization: Structural mineralization pathways and life cycle analysis (LCA) perspective. Alberta Innovates Energy and Environment Compendium. (Validating Blue Planet mineralization pathways and concrete industry mitigation boundaries).
Pillet, X. (n.d.). Long-Life Index Protocol: Open specification of incentive smart contracts for durability and predictive maintenance of self-healing concrete formulations (Basilisk, TU Delft, US8460458B2). Technical Disclosure Commons.
Salem, N. (2019). Advancements in Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS): A comprehensive review of technologies and prospects. Biomimetics / MDPI Journals, 7(4), 109. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7040109
Tracking progress of the 2020 climate turning point: Global deployment of corporate commitments. (2020). World Resources Institute (WRI) & Climate Group Policy Document. https://modelclimatelaws.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2020-turning-point-progress_2.pdf (Verifying Dalmia Cement’s dual-enrollment milestone as the global heavy industry first to join both RE100 and EP100 frameworks for carbon negative positioning by 2040).
