Save to read list Published by Alfie Lloyd-Perks, Assistant Editor World Cement, Thursday, 30 July 2026 08:35

Holcim launches the Sustainable Construction Academy, a 100% virtual platform, in Spanish, with international CPD certification and delivered by global experts.

The urgency to decarbonise cities faces a critical bottleneck in Latin America due to the lack of technical training in the sector. This challenge takes on a global dimension in light of projections estimating that 2.5 billion people will be added to urban areas by 2050, an impact that will accelerate in Latin America as one of the most urbanised regions on the planet, with more than 80% of its population concentrated in cities. In this scenario, the way in which the urban environment is designed and built will define the climate future of the coming decades.

Despite this context, the industry faces an operational paradox. According to data from the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry (CMIC), only 20% of sector professionals and 15% of SMEs have training in sustainability. This gap perpetuates the myth that green building is unviable or high cost, slowing the adoption of low-carbon technologies.

To break down these barriers and ensure that the decarbonisation strategy scales across the entire value chain, Holcim developed the Sustainable Construction Academy. It is a digital learning ecosystem, completely free, in Spanish and backed by the international accreditation of the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) standard. With the aim of closing the knowledge gap in the region, to date it has trained more than 9000 people worldwide, with 18% of participants coming from Latin America.

“For sustainable building to accelerate in Mexico, we must break the paradigm that low-carbon solutions are complex to apply. Materials technology has advanced substantially and today allows optimisation of thermal performance, durability and CO2 footprint in any project. This Academy is the bridge to transfer that technical expertise and ensure that knowledge becomes the accelerator of sustainable construction in the country,” commented José Alfredo Rodríguez, Innovation Manager at Holcim Mexico.

The programme is structured into ten modules across four major thematic areas:

Fundamentals of sustainable construction: key concepts, life cycles and essential material properties.

Low carbon and circularity: cement and concrete with a lower carbon footprint, and principles of applied circular economy.

Advanced properties: thermal efficiency of concrete and carbon analysis throughout the lifecycle.

Innovation and future: the path towards regenerative cities.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/30072026/holcim-launches-new-international-academy-to-accelerate-sustainable-construction/