Data Infrastructure for Cement & Concrete Decarbonization
Cement and concrete production accounts for ~8% of global CO₂ emissions — more than aviation and shipping combined. The transition to low-carbon cement isn't stalling because we lack low-carbon technologies. It's stalling because the cycle of investment is broken: capital responds to demand for new materials and that signal lost in an information and decision-making void.
Governments — by far the largest buyers of concrete and also the regulators for its use in the built environment — as well as investors lack the data infrastructure they need to coordinate the cycles of demand and investment that scale new materials.
Concrete Transition Capital (CTC) is provides that data infrastructure engine in two layers:
  1. A public intelligence platform that creates demand pull — making it easier for cities, states, policymakers, and procurement officers to specify, buy, and derisk low-carbon concrete; and
  1. A private underwriting engine that creates supply push — underwriting merchant risk and deploying capital into low-carbon projects; teaching the finance industry how this market works.
Samples from public and private CTC data interface
The Problem: An Industry Flying Blind
Dozens of low-carbon cement technologies exist today — supplementary cementitious materials, novel binders, carbon capture. Yet capital is not flowing here.
A big reason is investors lack data to answer basic, essential questions that enable underwriting the bankability of a project:
What do current solutions cost today?
Where are projects located?
What does it cost, delivered, to switch?
What is the quantified demand for low-carbon material and where are low-carbon projects actually emerging?
Meantime, government buyers and regulators of concrete similarly lack data to answer basic, essential questions that drive policy and market transformation:
What combination of tech solutions can be produced, at the lowest cost, the soonest, to fully decarbonize the concrete supply chain in my region?
What policy, procurement, contract or other intervention can I implement that reduces cost, time, or scalability of one of these solutions?
Without granular data on the supply chain - how concrete is priced and used - investors cannot underwrite merchant risk and structure capital, policymakers cannot compare or prioritize interventions, and the industry cannot transition.
8%
of Global CO₂
More than aviation and shipping combined
0
Shared Data Layers
No industry-wide information infrastructure exists today.
Demand Pull: Open Data Infrastructure for Cement & Concrete Decarbonization
CTC's public layer creates demand pull — giving policymakers, procurement officers, and industry coalitions the shared intelligence they need to specify, procure, mandate, facilitate, or reduce friction and cost for low-carbon concrete. When cities, states, transit agencies and policy-makers can see the supply chain clearly, model cost & impact in different scenarios, and generate evidence-based policy or rulemaking, they pull low-carbon products into the market at scale.
Supply Chain Maps
Facility-level data on cement and ready-mix production, transport networks, and emissions intensity — giving every stakeholder a shared view of where supply and demand actually are.
Digital Twin
A live, queryable model of the full cement and concrete production system — integrating building permit data, logistics costs, and emissions factors to answer 'what if' questions locally.
Systems Change
Constraint-aware regional optimization and policy recommendations — generates scenarios that allow cities and states to create & compare blueprints for time-bound, regional decarbonization.

Example: A state wishes to develop a 2050 cement & concrete decarbonization roadmap. Currently, it lacks complete data on its 1) total quantity of concrete procured, 2) placement application of concrete procured (e.g. strength class) 3) source of concrete procured, 4) historic spend / average pricing paid, 5) full range of low-emission material solutions that exist or could be built cost-effectively within region, including logistics and 6) the costs, impacts, or co-benefits of those solutions.
CTC's public platform combines AI with person-led qualitative research to digitize, synthesize and geolocate large datasets that address these questions, establish an addressable market baseline, and provide scenario blueprints on combinations of actions — rulemaking, permitting, procurement, leasing, policy, and other interventions — with sensitivity to cost, impact, and time.
💰 The Ask: $1,000,000 grant to build out full data sets and roadmaps for 3 regions — London, New York, and Los Angeles — inclusive of stakeholder convenings and qualitative research. CTC is already engaged with public agencies and convening partners in these jurisdictions where this infrastructure will have the greatest near-term impact. CTC can then replicate its data engine for 10+ additional jurisdictions it is engaged with.
Supply Push: Underwriting to Unlock the Capital Market for Cement & Concrete
CTC's private layer creates supply push — helping deploy CTC's capital and crowd-in commercial co-investment capital into low-carbon cement projects. Most financial institutions today lack cement & concrete industry knowledge or access to deep data sets that would enable them to underwrite risk considerations around material price, location, performance, logistics, and other factors.
CTC does the 'heavy lifting' of gathering a first-ever thematic data set for capital markets in cement & concrete and creating the underwriting "box" for investment capital to flow. When investors and advisors can evaluate deals on a consistent, comparable basis, capital flows toward low-carbon supply. CTC uses this framework to underwrite its own portfolio — and publishes the methodology and anonymized, aggregated data insights to direct and co-investment partners.
Technical Readiness
Technology maturity, production scalability, and supply chain integration across cement and SCM alternatives.
Market Viability
Regional demand signals, procurement pipeline, and competitive positioning against conventional cement.
Financial Structuring
Deal economics, blended finance structures, and risk-adjusted return profiles for lenders and equity investors.
Environmental Impact
Lifecycle emissions reductions, additionality, and alignment with regional and national decarbonization targets.

Example: A bank is approached to help fund a first-of-a-kind low emission cement production plant. As a new company operating in a 'spot' market commodity, the low emission provider lacks a deep sales history and has little contracted 'offtake' for the plant, once built. The bank tries to evaluate the company's cash flow projections but don't have comparative pricing data for cement products. In fact, they do not know what cement products the subject deal is competing with. Without this, it is near impossible to determine basic metrics that support an investment decision.
💰 The Ask: $500,000 as a Program-Related Investment (PRI) to fund the development and publication of CTC's underwriting framework for investors, enabling the broader finance community to adopt it as a sector standard. Note, this may be done through a grant to the Venn Foundation, which has established a PRI with CTC for this purpose, with support from the Schmidt Family Foundation.
Building the Repeatable Playbook for Cities and Capital
The transition to low-carbon concrete doesn't need a different solution in every city. It needs one replicable playbook — combining demand pull from cities, states, and transit authorities with supply push from capital — deployed again and again, faster each time.
The City Playbook
  • Map the local supply chain and emissions baseline
  • Model decarbonization scenarios using the Digital Twin
  • Generate jurisdiction-specific policy and procurement recommendations via the System Change Engine
  • Publish findings as an open, transferable city playbook
The Capital Playbook
  • Score projects using the shared underwriting framework (Technical, Market, Financial, Environmental)
  • Structure blended finance deals that work for local market conditions
  • Publish anonymized benchmarks to build market fluency
  • Replicate the deal structure in the next city
Anchor Cities: London, New York & Los Angeles
Prove the playbook works in three of the world's most complex built environments.
Scale Across the Global North
Roll out to other major metros — each deployment faster and cheaper than the last.
Apply the Learns to the Global South
Once technologies come down the cost curve, adapt the playbook for emerging markets where cement demand is growing fastest and the transition stakes are highest.

Concrete Transition Capital is building the shared data infrastructure that will unlock private capital, align policy, and accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment's largest emissions source. Join us. concretetransition.com