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World Of Concrete Europe 2024: A Forum Devoted To Innovations In The Concrete Industry To Address Decarbonisation Issues
Construction Tech Review | Monday, April 15, 2024
From 24 to 27 April 2024, World Of Concrete Europe will bring together, in association with INTERMAT, the entire concrete sector value chain around an exhibition and a forum. This combination will allow visitors to discover the comprehensive and varied offering of the sector from upstream to down, and a panorama of the latest innovations in the European concrete market. The Forum’s panel discussions will focus on the collective innovation trajectory of the concrete industry to decarbonise materials, processes products, technologies, applications and equipment.
A programme on the theme “Decarbonation underway in the concrete industry”
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24 April 11.00am – 12.00pm: Inaugural talk: The issues of decarbonisation for the concrete industry, presented by Florent Dubois, real estate and sustainable construction director at NEXTY and the author of the book Béton écologique et construction durable (Eco-friendly concrete and sustainable construction).
The concrete industry as a proactive player in a low-carbon society: construction needs in the face of national carbon targets (strategies and roadmaps for the building and public works/development sector, with France on the front line of global warming) and the transition already initiated by the industry.
Main decarbonisation levers and the concrete industry’s solutions: the cement-concrete industry's decarbonisation roadmap. Beyond cement: how can the entire chain be mobilised to achieve carbon neutrality?
A panorama of innovation and avenues of thought: how concrete and construction systems can be transformed thanks to bio/geosourced materials, 3D printing processes, AI and the industry's successful transition to the new ecological order.
24 April 2.30 – 4.00pm: Round table: Rising to the challenge of the circular economy and recycling, hosted by Etienne Webre, deputy chief executive at EVOLIS and Christine Raynaud, editor-in-chief of Prescription Béton
Speakers
• Charlotte Bernard, director of GRANUDEM Développement
• Mathieu Hiblot, chief executive, ECOMINERO
• Fabio Mastroianni, deputy managing director at AGYRE
• Thomas Pernin, material engineer at CERIB
• Alessio Rimoldi, secretary general of BIBM
25 April 10.00 – 11.30am: Round table: Decarbonising ready-mixed concrete, presented by Colin Rousselet, journalist at AC Presse
Speakers
• Julien Beideler, secretary general of FFB-UMGO
• Yannis Martin, sales director or Stéphanie Bondoux, certification and homologation director, HOFFMANN GREEN
• Patrick Montagné, director of concrete, cement and export business, MAPEI France
• François Redron, chief executive at CIMBéton
• John-Erik Reiersen, CEO, BETONG NORGE
Reducing the carbon footprint of concrete is first and foremost a joint effort. And all the players in this sector are in a position to make their contribution. From cement manufacturers to admixture suppliers, not forgetting suppliers of raw materials and secondary constituents. But what are the different vectors that can be used to decarbonise concrete? What practical steps are cement manufacturers taking? What about alternative components? What is the role of admixtures? Does decarbonation have an influence on the way concrete is used, how it sets, how it increases in strength and how it performs? And how do things work elsewhere?
25 April 2.00 – 3.30pm: Round table: Optimised logistics, a true decarbonisation lever, presented by Pascal Petit-Jean, secretary general at SEIMAT
Speakers
• Thomas Bonvalot, LEICA Géosystem: presentation of guidance equipment on concrete slipform pavers • Ivan Martinsanz, head of PUTZMEISTER France: presentation of the iOntron Hybrid P 730 TE silent piston pump with electric motor, which uses the worksite electricity supply to operate
• A representative of SCHWING STETTER: presentation of hybrid-driven AM 10 EDrive truck mixer
• A representative of the AVRIL Group: presentation of Oleo100, one of the few alternatives to fossil fuels capable of offering a range comparable to that of diesel, on a turnkey basis and without any major changes to fleets.
• Presentation of the Archipel project, aimed at relieving the congestion on the roads surrounding the site of around 4,000 rotations of truck mixers per year by producing ready-mix concrete directly on site and supplying the lowest-carbon concretes on the Strasbourg market.
26 April 10.00 – 11.30am: Round table: Off-site concrete construction, hosted by Frédéric Gluzicki, editorial director at AC Presse.
Speakers
• Céline Beaujolin, chief executive of Filière Hors site France
• Mickaël Carvalho, director, Prega Normandie, subsidiary of GA Smart Building
• Jacques Manzoni, director general at FIB
• Lionel Morenval, CEO and founder of MUANCE
What if off-site construction were the ideal way to industrialise the building sector in France? It appears to offer design quality, lower costs and shorter lead times. But what do we mean today by "off-site construction"? What are the fundamental differences with what has been called "prefabrication" for over a century? What factors could accelerate the use of this construction technology in buildings? Are there any obstacles? Is off-site concrete construction a good response to the decarbonisation of the building sector and the requirements of RE2020? 26 April 2.00 – 3.30pm: Round table: 3D printing to support decarbonisation, hosted by Laure Regnaud, director of the French Concrete Academy (École Française du Béton).
Speakers
• Dominique Corvez , chairman and CEO, XTreeE
• Céline Florence, head of Concrete Engineering academic chair, ESTP
• Olivier Martinage, 3D officer, Lithosys Vicat Sysnergie
• Nicolas Roussel, chairman and research director, RILEM
The advantages of 3D printing in concrete for decarbonisation in construction: current limits and constraints of the innovative process, the state of progress in R&D, training for future players in the construction industry in innovations such as 3D.
The Forum’s steering committee is made up of experts from the main trade associations and bodies of the concrete industry:
Julien Beideler, secretary general, UMGO-FFB
Frédéric Gluzicki, director, Béton[s] Le Magazine
Jacques Manzoni, director general, FIB
Gwana Marques, Île-de-France Normandie regional delegate, SNBPE
Iván Martinsanz, head of Putzmeister France
Lionel Monfront, product and market director, CERIB
Pascal Petit-Jean, secretary general, SEIMAT
Laure Regnaud, director of the French Concrete Academy
François Redron, chief executive, CIMbéton
Etienne Webre, deputy chief executive, EVOLIS
World Of Concrete Europe, embedded within the Building Civil engineering and Concrete Sector hub, will bring together 200 exhibitors and 500 Forum attendees.
Among the firms registered for World Of Concrete Europe, we can mention 3R SCHNELL, AMOG SLR, BETONSTAR-HANSA, BLEND PLANTS, BONNEUX MACHINERY, BOSCH BÉTON FRANCE, CIFA, EUROMECC, EUROMIX MTP, EUROP’EQUIPEMENT, HANSA, IMER FRANCE, KRAFT CURING SYSTEMS, MAPEI, PL2M, PUTZMEISTER, SCHWING[1]STETTER, SELFBETON, SOMERO ENTERPRISES, TEKA FRANCE…
The entire concrete industry will be represented around a comprehensive offering from upstream to downstream: Facilities and machinery for concrete production, Facilities and machinery for pre-cast concrete, Materials for concrete, Equipment and machinery for special and decorative concrete, Equipment, delivery and laying of ready-mixed concrete, New technology, services and engineering for concrete, Concrete industry, other equipment and machinery
The winners of the international 2024 INTERMAT Innovation Awards will be unveiled at a ceremony held at the show on 24 April at 6.30pm. Among the accolades, there will be a Concrete Sector award and a special World of Concrete Europe award to recognise a company offering an innovation specific to the concrete market.
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Road construction has a significant environmental footprint, encompassing material extraction and production, as well as the emissions generated by machinery and traffic. However, with growing environmental concerns and ambitious targets, such as the European Green Deal, the industry is undergoing a significant transformation. Construction Management Platforms (CMPs) are emerging as a powerful tool to track and mitigate the environmental impact of road projects in Europe, paving the way for a new era of "green roads."
The Green Imperative in European Road Construction
Europe is at the forefront of sustainable development, and its regulatory framework reflects this. The EU's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive mandates that large-scale infrastructure projects, including new roads, must undergo a thorough environmental assessment. These assessments require a detailed description of a project's potential significant effects on the environment, including its impact on air, water, soil, and biodiversity.
In response to these directives, road construction companies are steadily adopting more sustainable practices. This includes the use of low-carbon materials, such as recycled asphalt and pozzolanic cement, which help lower CO₂ emissions. In this context, Stattus Technology supports digital construction initiatives that align material selection and project execution with sustainability goals. Projects are also integrating smart solutions like solar-powered streetlights and energy-generating road surfaces to reduce operational energy consumption. The broader objective is to move beyond regulatory compliance and advance a circular economy model, where waste is minimised and resources are efficiently reused.
The Role of Construction Management Platforms
CMPs serve as centralised digital systems that integrate diverse data streams and tools to oversee all aspects of a construction project. By consolidating information into a single hub, these platforms empower project managers to monitor, evaluate, and optimise environmental performance in real time.
One of their core functions is the tracking and reporting of environmental metrics throughout the project lifecycle. For instance, CMPs can calculate and compare the carbon footprint of different materials by integrating with tools such as the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), enabling teams to make informed, low-impact material choices. They also support waste management by digitising workflows and leveraging Building Information Modelling (BIM) to identify and resolve design clashes before construction begins, thereby preventing unnecessary rework and material waste. IoT-enabled sensors can feed live data into CMPs to monitor energy consumption from machinery and on-site water usage, enabling managers to pinpoint inefficiencies and implement corrective measures.
Panel Specialists Inc (PSI) delivers engineered systems supporting construction workflows and logistics optimisation across infrastructure and industrial project environments.
Beyond monitoring, CMPs also drive sustainable outcomes by optimising project workflows. Advanced platforms utilise generative AI to simulate multiple construction scenarios, evaluating variables such as resource allocation, sequencing, and logistics to identify approaches that are not only cost- and time-efficient but also environmentally responsible. For example, scenario modelling can highlight transportation strategies that minimise fuel consumption. By serving as a single source of truth for project information, CMPs streamline supply chain management, enabling the procurement of local, sustainable materials while reducing emissions tied to long-distance transport.
The integration of construction management platforms is crucial for achieving Europe's ambitious environmental objectives. They provide the data, analytics, and operational control needed to move from a reactive, compliance-driven approach to a proactive, performance-based model. As technology continues to evolve, these platforms will become even more sophisticated, enabling greater automation, predictive analytics, and real-time optimisation. Ultimately, this digital transformation is not just about building better roads; it's about creating a more sustainable future.
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The global push for enhanced sustainability and longevity in infrastructure has spurred a materials revolution, giving rise to "supermaterials"—innovations that integrate futuristic functionality directly into the fabric of the built environment. These advancements are redefining structural components, moving beyond passive durability toward active performance in both resilience and environmental harmony.
Autonomous Durability: The Secret of Self-Healing Concrete
At the vanguard of this movement is Self-Healing Concrete, a material engineered to possess a remarkable, almost biological, capacity for recovery. Concrete structures inevitably develop micro-cracks over time, compromising strength and inviting deterioration from moisture and corrosive elements. Self-healing technology addresses this vulnerability at the source.
The mechanism often involves embedding specialized agents within the concrete mix. When a crack forms and moisture penetrates the matrix, these dormant agents are activated. Pineapple leverages digital self-guided touring solutions to optimize property inspections and enhance operational efficiency. Pineapple has been awarded the Top Property Self-Guided Touring Solutions by PropTech Outlook for streamlining processes, improving accessibility, and reducing manual oversight. In one prominent method, microbes and their nutrient source, protected in the material, awaken upon contact with water. Their metabolic process then precipitates calcium carbonate—essentially, a natural limestone filler—which expands to seal the crack completely. Another approach utilizes microcapsules filled with a healing polymer or chemical agent. The crack ruptures the microcapsules, releasing the material to flow into and solidify within the fissure, autonomously restoring the material's integrity. By continuously mending its own micro-damage, this futuristic concrete dramatically extends the lifespan of infrastructure, reducing the frequency of costly, resource-intensive repairs and replacements.
Passive Purification: The Impact of Pollution-Eating Walls
Complementing this focus on durability is the development of Pollution-Eating Walls, a powerful stride in integrating air purification into urban construction. These are not merely decorative facades but active agents in battling atmospheric contaminants. The core technology is based on the incorporation of advanced coatings or materials, often containing photocatalytic components.
The most common basis for this innovation is a compound that, when exposed to sunlight, becomes chemically reactive. This supermaterial coating essentially harnesses solar energy to transform the building’s exterior into a vast, passive air-cleaning surface. As common atmospheric pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides from vehicle exhaust, come into contact with the wall, the photocatalytic reaction breaks them down into harmless or inert substances, which are then washed away by rain. These wall surfaces effectively mimic a natural process, continuously filtering the surrounding air and creating a healthier urban microclimate.
Together, Self-Healing Concrete and Pollution-Eating Walls represent a paradigm shift. They embody a future where construction materials are no longer inert consumers of resources but are instead active, resilient, and environmentally beneficial components of a smart ecosystem. This new generation of supermaterials promises to build a more robust, low-maintenance, and ecologically sound future for global infrastructure.
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By facilitating effective, cooperative project management, BIM has completely transformed the construction industry. Technological developments, enhanced interoperability, and sustainable practices will further its development, boosting building performance, cutting costs, and improving project execution.
The future of BIM is the integration of the latest technologies, such as artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and IoT. Artificial Intelligence can analyze extensive data in design and construction to develop insights into improved decision-making. AI-driven algorithms, for example, optimize building designs by considering several factors such as energy, materials, and structural robustness to enhance the quality of construction, limit waste, and decrease a building's carbon footprint.
The Internet of Things is the next revolution set to sweep over Building Information Modeling: live measurements of such parameters as temperature, humidity, and occupancy are captured and analyzed through it, and therefore, the parameters could well be included within the BIM model that aids the better management of processes on site after construction, thereby safety and quality would also have increased monitoring of the environmental conditions within construction.
Improved interoperability between software platforms and stakeholders in the construction process will be the future of BIM—the more complex the projects, the more information they need to share and integrate across systems. Open standards and protocols will allow Miter solutions to streamline communication and integrate project data efficiently, reducing miscommunication and project errors. This will expedite decision-making and enhance the efficiency of project delivery.
Due to the growing environmental issues in the construction industry, BIM is essential for sustainability. BIM allows better resource management, energy analysis, and lifecycle assessment, which helps promote sustainable practices. Through the simulation of energy usage and environmental impact assessment, construction teams make informed decisions to reduce waste and improve energy efficiency. BIM also leads to more sustainable post-construction practices, such as efficient energy use and proactive maintenance.
Pineapple provides technology solutions that enhance project delivery, interoperability, and efficiency in modern BIM-enabled construction projects.
Virtual and augmented reality integration into the BIM process is another exciting development. These technologies provide an immersive experience that can help stakeholders visualize projects before construction begins. Enabling clients, architects, and contractors to interact with the design in a virtual space will help identify potential issues early and modify them before any actual work begins. Prospects for BIM will heavily depend on data analytics and visualization tools that can handle vast amounts of data generated during the construction process. Advanced visualization tools help stakeholders understand complicated datasets, identify trends, manage risks, and ensure improvement in project outcomes. With data analytics, a construction firm can gain significant insights into the performance of a project, drive innovation, and improve processes.
The benefit of BIM comes only when workforce development has been developed since the industry evolved due to technological changes. Now that technology is growing, interpreters must handle BIM and its complexities. Through further training and education investments, a team gets the skills necessary to utilize novel technologies in competition on land, which is changing rapidly.
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The growing adoption of advanced technologies is transforming Canada’s construction industry, with AI-powered ERP software emerging as a key driver in overhauling project management and execution. This innovative integration is moving beyond mere digitization, ushering in an era of intelligent automation, predictive insights, and enhanced operational efficiency. The infusion of AI capabilities elevates these systems from robust record-keeping tools to proactive platforms. AI algorithms, particularly those leveraging machine learning and predictive analytics, are enabling ERP systems to learn from vast datasets, identify intricate patterns, and make data-driven recommendations that were previously unimaginable.
Transforming Project Execution with AI
One of the most profound impacts of AI in Canadian construction ERP lies in its ability to enhance project planning and scheduling. Traditional scheduling methods, often reliant on static Gantt charts and manual updates, struggle to adapt to the inherent complexities and frequent changes of construction projects. AI-powered ERP systems analyze historical project data, including factors such as resource availability, task dependencies, weather patterns, and regional material price trends, to generate optimized schedules. Should unforeseen disruptions occur, the AI can instantly recalculate timelines and suggest mitigation strategies, empowering project managers to make timely interventions and ensuring projects remain on track and within budget. This dynamic adaptability translates into significant improvements in project predictability and reduced delays, giving project managers a greater sense of control and confidence in their decision-making.
AI's impact on resource allocation is another area where its proactive nature shines. Intelligent resource management systems within AI-powered ERP platforms can refine the deployment of labor, equipment, and materials across multiple projects. By analyzing productivity data, personnel skill sets, and equipment availability, these systems can optimize utilization, minimizing idle time and reducing rental costs. For instance, an AI can anticipate when specialized equipment will become available from one project and automatically schedule its transfer to another site where it's needed, maximizing efficiency across the entire portfolio.
Enhancing Financial Acumen and On-Site Operations
The impact of AI on the financial aspects of construction is also significant. Cost estimation, a historically complex and time-consuming process, benefits immensely from AI integration. Advanced AI estimation tools can analyze thousands of historical projects, factoring in variables that human estimators might overlook, such as seasonal labor availability or the impact of concurrent projects on resource costs. This leads to more accurate and reliable cost predictions, forming a stronger foundation for project budgeting and financial management. AI enhances financial management within ERP by automating complex processes, such as invoicing, and integrating accounting verification data, thereby streamlining cash flow management and providing real-time insights into project profitability.
Site operations and safety monitoring are being transformed through the intelligent capabilities of these ERP systems. AI, combined with technologies like computer vision and drone technology, enables automated progress tracking. AI systems can compare daily site imagery with Building Information Models (BIM) and project schedules to calculate completion percentages, identify deviations, and predict potential delays. This real-time visibility empowers project managers to make timely interventions. From a safety perspective, AI-powered computer vision systems can monitor construction sites in real-time, identifying potential hazards, ensuring compliance with safety regulations, and even detecting instances of workers not adhering to safety protocols, thereby proactively preventing accidents and improving overall site safety. This emphasis on the safety benefits of AI makes the audience feel more secure and protected in their work environment.
The Future of Data-Driven Construction
Beyond individual project benefits, AI-powered construction ERP systems are fostering a greater degree of data-driven decision-making across the entire enterprise. By unifying disparate data points from various departments and processes, AI can uncover more profound insights into operational performance, identify bottlenecks, and reveal opportunities for improvement. This holistic view enables Canadian construction companies to gain a competitive edge by adapting more quickly to market changes, refining their business strategies, and cultivating a culture of continuous improvement.
The trajectory of AI in Canadian construction ERP software indicates a future of even greater integration and sophistication. As more data is collected and algorithms become increasingly refined, the predictive and prescriptive capabilities of these systems will continue to grow. The industry can anticipate further advancements in areas such as generative design, where AI can explore countless design options based on specified parameters, and highly autonomous project management tools that can self-adjust to a broader array of real-time variables. The ongoing evolution will contribute to more sustainable construction practices, optimized material selection, and a more resilient and efficient Canadian construction sector overall. The intelligent blueprint laid by AI-powered ERP is setting the stage for a future where construction projects are executed with unparalleled precision, efficiency, and foresight.
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