Pat Cox appointed chair of Ecocem

This article was originally published in issue 39 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €10, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge

Cox is currently chair of the Finance Green Ireland committee, is chairing the inaugural Dublin Climate Dialogues this year, and is also chair of the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund – the first ever fund for grid scale battery storage listed by the London Stock Exchange.

He is also a board member of Supernode, an Irish renewables start up. He built his own passive house in Blackrock, Dublin in 2013, as featured in issue 10 of Passive House Plus.

Ecocem is Europe’s leading producer of low carbon cement and says that it has achieved a cumulative reduction in CO2 emissions of over 14 million tonnes since it was founded in 2000 – equivalent to almost a quarter of Ireland’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. The company produces a range of low-carbon cements based on ground granulated blast furnace slag at four plants in Ireland, the Netherlands and France.

“Concrete, after water, is the most widely used substance on earth,” Pat Cox said. “The cement industry globally would, if it was a state, be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world. Ecocem, through its commitment to innovation and new technologies, is determined to make a difference at scale – a quality that makes the privileged engagement of chairmanship a challenging duty consistent with the needs of our times.”

Ecocem managing director Donal O’Riain added: “We are now in a period of major growth for our business as we deploy new low-carbon technology across the cement sector in Europe. We are delighted to have someone of Pat Cox’s experience and commitment to sustainability to chair the Ecocem board at such an exciting and challenging time for Ecocem.”