Shell and Irish building materials giant CRH have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) whereby both businesses will work together to develop and deploy decarbonisation solutions and technologies to accelerate their progress towards net zero emissions.
The agreement will see Shell and CRH collaborate to explore decarbonisation opportunities across transport, operations, and materials. The solutions include, but are not limited to, vehicle electrification and charging infrastructure to reduce transport emissions; deploying low-carbon fuels for off-road equipment and renewable electricity to power facilities; and developing low-carbon asphalt solutions.
Shell and CRH say that collaboration is key to moving at speed and scale to unlock new and innovative decarbonisation solutions. By working together, they hope to maximise learning and knowledge sharing to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon solutions and technologies that will help both companies to reach net zero.
Shell and CRH say they will start work together immediately to begin delivering progress on decarbonisation across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific.
In a recent interview with Aggregates Business's sister magazine, World Highways, Raman Ojha, the global head of Shell's Construction and Roads division, created last year, said decarbonising construction is a major challenge. "Construction and roads is one of the most complex and difficult sectors to decarbonise. How materials are produced, how they are transported, how they are used to produce the end product, the whole supply chain is pretty complex."
However, Ojha, who has been with Shell for 17 years, working in major roles in China, the US and India, said he is up for the challenge: "It makes things more exciting. It would be boring if it was vanilla."
CRH employs 73,000 people in 29 countries and is the largest building and material supplier in North America and Europe, along with regional strengths in Asia.
