09/06/2026
We're feeling proud today to share we've teamed up with iconic kiwi business Hynds to advance lower carbon precast concrete solutions for New Zealand infrastructure.
Our teams are collaborating to trial Aspiring Materials’ low-carbon silica product as a new supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in their concrete mixes.
The question we’re aiming to answer is if our silica can replace up to 30% of cement in precast concrete mixes, because it’s one of the industry’s largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions.
While other SCMs are available, Aspiring Materials’ silica is produced in New Zealand, and that helps to reduce dependence on imports and keeps it local. Hynds doesn’t need to change any of their processes, they’re simply swapping out a portion of traditional cement with our silica.
We’ve previously had our silica independently verified as a natural pozzolan and it meets standards in NZ, the US and the EU, but this is the first time it’s being put to the test in a real-world application. More to share after the results are in…
Can you replace up to 30% of cement in precast concrete using a locally produced material without impacting performance?
We are working with kiwi business Aspiring Materials NZ to put that to the test in our precast operations.
We’re trialling their silica as a supplementary cementitious material in our concrete mixes. Together, we are assessing how it performs under genuine production conditions, rather than in a lab.
The material meets NZ, USA and EU standards as a natural pozzolan and has been independently verified for partial cement replacement. It’s produced from olivine (largely mining by-product) using a low-carbon, low-waste process.
The key question that we and the team at Aspiring Materials are trying to answer is whether this can deliver meaningful carbon reduction without introducing complexity into manufacturing or affecting long-term performance. Pending successful validation, this could provide a practical pathway to lower-emissions precast using local materials and processes compatible with existing production frameworks.
This collaboration continues our history of partnering with kiwi innovators to provide our customers with high quality, locally manufactured products.
