Every cubic meter of concrete counts.
At Swerock, part of the PEAB Group in Sweden, reducing CO₂ emissions is not a bold announcement, it is a series of small, deliberate steps. Staffan Carlström, Product Developer at Swerock, explains how testing, learning, and scaling eco-concrete has enabled measurable progress project by project and dataset by dataset.
Swerock introduced its climate-improved concrete, ECO-Betong, in 2018. Early adoption was modest, but deliberate. As experience grew and data accumulated, eco-concrete gradually became a meaningful share of production. According to Staffan, the technical changes were incremental and manageable across plants.
What made the difference was proof. Measured performance, repeatable results, and growing trust across the value chain. In 2024, that confidence resulted in a clear decision: climate-improved concrete became the standard offering to their customers.
It’s a reminder that large-scale change is rarely sudden. It’s built one dataset, one adjustment, and one informed decision at a time.
One of the biggest challenges in scaling ECO-Betong was knowledge gaps across the industry. Few stakeholders consider themselves experts in green concrete, making education and collaboration across the entire value chain essential.
By making ECO-Betong the default offering, Swerock sent a clear signal: the product is ready, reliable, and easy to use. This reduced hesitation among clients, turning the first step toward low-carbon concrete into a manageable decision. Small, confident steps like this make widespread adoption possible without demanding a giant leap from the market.
The results of Swerock’s efforts are tangible. When ECO-Betong was first introduced, it had a CO₂ footprint of around 300 kg per cubic meter. Today, the average footprint sits at 240 kg per cubic meter, a 20% reduction.
Adoption has also grown substantially. Two years into the introduction, ECO-Betong accounted for about 20% of total volume. Today, 88% of all concrete delivered is climate-improved, with 50% as Eco1 and 20% as Eco2. By presenting climate-improved concrete as the standard offering, Swerock built market confidence and made broader adoption seamless.
Looking beyond Sweden, other countries in the Nordics and Europe may be technically ahead in using alternative binders and supplementary cementitious materials. For example, Finland has been using these materials for a longer period and at a larger scale.
However, when it comes to applying a climate-improved approach that measures and reduces total CO₂ emissions across an entire building, Sweden is among the first. While some technical aspects may lag, Sweden is ahead in operationalizing low-carbon concrete solutions at scale, focusing on measurable impact rather than just the material itself.
Swerock is advancing its eco-concrete production in stages. Today, 50% of production is Eco1. By 2028, Eco2 will account for 50% and Eco3 for 20%, marking a clear shift toward more sustainable concrete solutions.
The strategy is simple but effective: incrementally increase CO₂ reduction, maintain production reliability, and build confidence in higher-performance concrete. By taking measured steps, Swerock ensures sustainable change is practical and scalable.
Swerock’s journey demonstrates that transformation doesn’t require a single leap. Real change comes from:
Each step builds trust in the product, the market, and the process, turning innovation into the new standard.
Progress in sustainable construction is rarely driven by a single breakthrough. It is built through a sequence of well-tested choices that compound over time.
At Ecometrix, we focus on turning environmental complexity into shared understanding, so teams can move forward with confidence rather than assumption. Our tools are AI, an understanding of the people, processes, and market situations for our clients.
Our work stems from a mindset that when data and understanding is credible and accessible, pilots become repeatable, decisions become defensible, and net-zero ambitions translate into real-world outcomes.
This series explores how that shift happens in practice through collaboration, verification, and steady scale.
Follow along and discover how clarity, collaboration, and practical steps are shaping the future of construction.
This article is part of Concrete Action Towards Net Zero: From Pilot to Scale — How Swerock made green concrete standard. — a collaborative series by Ecometrix, BDO Sverige and Swerock.
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