Sustainable Concrete Buyers Alliance Launches to Accelerate Adoption of Low-Carbon Building and Infrastructure Materials

New RMI and Center for Green Market Activation initiative will enable Amazon, Prologis, Meta, and other leading organizations to participate in a first-of-its-kind joint purchase of sustainable concrete attribute certificates, driving investment into cutting-edge production facilities, low-carbon cement blends, and emerging technologies.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a landmark step for the cement and concrete sector, RMI (founded as Rocky Mountain Institute) and the Center for Green Market Activation (GMA) today launched the Sustainable Concrete Buyers Alliance (SCoBA), bringing together founding members, including Amazon, Prologis, and Meta, alongside other leading organizations to accelerate adoption of low-carbon cement and concrete for 21^st century buildings and infrastructure. SCoBA is the first buyers group formed to collectively procure environmental attribute certificates for low-carbon concrete, aiming to turn demand into real-world offtake agreements that enable producers to invest at scale in new infrastructure and pioneering technologies.

The cement and concrete sector accounts for around 8 percent of global carbon emissions and is predicted to grow significantly by 2050, but low-carbon options are currently not available at scale. The emissions from construction of factories, warehouses, data centers, and offices are difficult to address due to the embodied carbon from construction materials. SCoBA will leverage an innovative book and claim system to enable companies to purchase the environmental attributes from sustainable concrete and upstream products such as cement and clinker, reducing their associated supply chain emissions, and generating additional revenue to help finance capital-intensive decarbonization projects.

"The cement and concrete sector's decarbonization challenge is also one of its greatest economic opportunities," said Jon Creyts, CEO at RMI. "By aggregating demand from major buyers and establishing rigorous standards, we're creating the market conditions for breakthrough low-carbon cement innovations to scale. RMI is proud to work with GMA and leading organizations to launch SCoBA and enable concrete producers to invest confidently in clean and resilient materials that lead to economic benefits."

Later this year, SCoBA will begin to connect members with leading producers through a first-of-its-kind competitive procurement process for low-carbon cement and concrete certificates to meet the collective demand of its founding members and spur clean tech innovation. The first request for information (RFI) is open now, seeking information from suppliers about the current availability of low-carbon cement and concrete and its performance characteristics, prospective use cases, and operational approaches for environmental attribute certificates, as well as any opportunities or challenges related to participating in a book and claim system.

"SCoBA builds on proven approaches from other hard-to-abate sectors, bringing aggregated buyer demand to the concrete industry," said Kim Carnahan, President and CEO at GMA. "By connecting buyers and suppliers through a credible book and claim framework, we can unlock the investments needed to scale next-generation cement and concrete solutions in one of the world's most emissions-intensive industries."

Book and claim is a market-based system that allows the environmental benefits of a product, like low-carbon cement and concrete, to be decoupled from its physical delivery. This system enables buyers to financially support sustainable production, regardless of where the materials are used, offering flexibility and scalability in decarbonization strategies. Book and claim is particularly effective in industries with complex supply chains in the beginning phases of technological transformation, allowing companies to make credible emissions reduction claims while accelerating market transformation.

SCoBA is leveraging a draft book and claim framework developed over a year-long stakeholder consultation process facilitated by GMA and RMI. This process featured a 30-member Working Group composed of experts across the cement and concrete value chain that met monthly to align on key design criteria to ensure the book and claim system promotes only high-integrity environmental outcomes. The draft framework is undergoing a comment and revision period and will continue to be refined over time with learnings from early attribute transactions.

"SCoBA represents a significant advancement in how we approach sustainable construction materials," said Chris Atkins, Director, Worldwide Operations Sustainability at Amazon. "Its innovative procurement process and book and claim framework provide the tools needed to support lower-carbon concrete production at scale. Such efforts are critical in driving the broader market toward the materials needed for a net-zero future."

RMI and GMA are leveraging their expertise from successful initiatives in other sectors, including the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform, and GMA Trucking. Through these initiatives, RMI and GMA are encouraging the adoption of sustainable fuels and materials to lower the climate impact of some of the most emissions-intensive industry and transport sectors.

By aggregating and activating demand from major buyers, SCoBA aims to catalyze a transformation in the concrete industry—incentivizing development, deployment, and uptake of low-carbon materials, driving down emissions from the built environment, improving public health, and building a cleaner future from the ground up.

"Low-carbon cement and concrete are essential to decarbonizing the built environment and this alliance will help bring next-generation solutions to scale for the benefit of our customers," said Keara Fanning, Director of Net Zero and Sustainability at Prologis.

To join SCoBA, please reach out to [email protected].
To respond to the RFI, please visit:  https://gmacenter.org/program/cement-concrete/. Submissions are due by October 17^th, 2025.

Media Inquiries, please contact:
Chris Potter, Media Relations Manager, RMI T: 603-831-4189, E: [email protected]

Alison Greene, Communications Manager, GMA E: [email protected]

About RMI
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 1982 that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to secure a prosperous, resilient, clean energy future for all. In collaboration with businesses, policymakers, funders, communities, and other partners, RMI drives investment to scale clean energy solutions, reduce energy waste, and boost access to affordable clean energy in ways that enhance security, strengthen the economy, and improve people's livelihoods. RMI is active in over 60 countries. For more information, please visit rmi.org.

About the Center for Green Market Activation
The Center for Green Market Activation (GMA) is a US-based, globally focused non-profit. Through innovative book-and-claim systems, new and creative procurement approaches, and demand aggregating buyers' alliances, GMA catalyzes and scales the uptake of low-carbon goods and services within carbon-intensive industries such as aviation, maritime, trucking, cement and concrete, and chemicals. With collective decades of experience in environmental markets and alternative fuels and materials, GMA works to standardize new, green markets and forges mutually beneficial partnerships between climate-focused companies, suppliers, and mission-aligned non-profit organizations to channel funding to critical climate technologies in pursuit of accelerated sectoral decarbonization. For more information, please visit gmacenter.org.

SOURCE Center for Green Market Activation