Optimizing production operations to reduce emissions in the construction materials industry — lessons from the DURAflex Quảng Trị plant

Against the backdrop of Vietnam’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, the construction sector—an industry that accounts for a large share of emissions—faces an increasingly clear imperative to transform. The challenge is not only reducing emissions but integrating this goal into existing operating systems while maintaining efficiency at an industrial scale.

Measuring, standardizing and continuous improvement

The fiber cement sheet production line at the DURAflex Quảng Trị plant still comprises the same steps of sand grinding, processing and dispersing cellulose fibers to sheet-forming stages using Flow-on technology and high-pressure curing. However, the plant director, Pham Van Hung, said the way operations are organized has optimized energy control and resource use at each stage.

According to the company, energy consumption is tracked separately in each area. This enables the plant to identify major consumption points and implement improvements step by step. The company said the approach has reduced energy consumption by more than 30% in recent years without interrupting the production line.

“We started from measuring, standardizing and continuously improving each stage, rather than seeking a single, standalone solution,” said Nguyen Truong Hai, CEO of Saint-Gobain Vietnam, in an interview at the plant. He described the process as an accumulation-based improvement model in which gains come from many small changes maintained over time.

Lower-emission energy and resource use

Alongside operational optimization, the plant’s energy structure has been adjusted to lower emissions. The steam system that formerly used diesel oil has been replaced with biomass-fired steam, using local agricultural by-products such as rice husks and wood chips from a local supply.

At the same time, all electricity used at the plant is recorded as renewable electricity with I-REC certificates, while internal vehicles such as forklifts and excavators have been fully electrified. The company said this transition helps reduce about 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per year from direct emissions and about 2,800 tonnes from electricity.

On water, the plant currently recycles more than 60% of water used in production and reduces water use per unit of product by nearly half compared with before.

Embedding emissions targets into daily operations

Beyond technical changes, the company said the organizational approach to people in operations is important for maintaining system efficiency. “When targets are clarified down to each position, each individual understands their role in reducing emissions,” Hai said. The company described this as making improvement initiatives part of daily operations rather than dependent on a single department, supporting stability beyond short-term gains.

Lifecycle emissions reshape material evaluation

Hai said the market is shifting how building materials are evaluated. “Materials will no longer be assessed only by quality or price, but also by environmental impact across the lifecycle,” he said. In this view, emissions become a more important criterion in the design and selection of materials rather than a supplementary factor.

Saint-Gobain said it is expanding its role from producing materials to providing high-performance, low-emission construction solutions integrated with the entire lifecycle of a project. The company said tools including Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) are used to measure and disclose emissions, incorporating carbon into design and investment decisions.

Scaling the model across Vietnam

The Quảng Trị plant is part of a long-term strategy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 across the group, with deployment steps implemented in specific phases. The company said the “Zero Carbon plant” is both an operational goal and a concrete step toward adapting to market changes.

System-level, standardized operating models like the Quảng Trị plant are being scaled across the network of plants in Vietnam, supported by measurement and data digitization to monitor and continuously optimize. “Early movers will have an advantage as the market shifts,” Hai said.

Saint-Gobain’s DURAflex Quảng Trị plant is presented as a model for how the construction industry’s transformation is moving into practice. As emission considerations become part of material and project evaluation, the company said the transformation becomes a necessity rather than an option, with pioneering companies helping shape how the market operates in the future.