Research & Innovation

 
 

Lafarge Zambia's Research & Development (R&D) is driven by our customers, who face today's major challenges: achieving energy efficiency, lowering cost of construction, reducing our environmental footprint, and meeting high standards of aesthetics, health, comfort, and well-being. Together with our partners and customers, our best-in-class R&D teams develop the most innovative products, solutions, and services, as well as advanced manufacturing processes. 

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Reducing construction costs and contributing to more affordable housing

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  • Our challenge: housing costs are critical for billions of people worldwide. We must offer affordable and cost-effective building solutions to our customers and end-users.
  • LafargeHolcim R&D answers:
    • We develop sustainable and environment-friendly construction solutions with innovative materials or systems.
    • For example, a new binder specifically formulated for stabilized soil bricks production was launched in the end of 2013 in Malawi, with an innovative economic model: manual press machines are lent to our customers to manufacture bricks while contractors and developers are trained to use them. 

 

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Minimizing our environmental footprint through process innovation

 
  • Our challenge: reducing the CO2 emissions resulting from cement manufacturing to minimize our impact on climate change. 
  • LafargeHolcim R&D answers:
    • We leverage our R&D resources to constantly improve our manufacturing processes, by capturing and thermal energy, recycling it back into the process, and sourcing power from renewable sources. 
    • Our expertise in cement chemistry has allowed our R&D teams to design lower-carbon cements over the years. 
    • To go further, we partner with some of the world's most innovative and advanced start-ups. For instance, with Solidia, we are working on new cement and concrete technology that could reduce CO2 emissions up to 70%.