Enhancing sustainability across the entire life cycle of concrete—spanning raw material sourcing, manufacturing, construction, use, and end-of-life—is essential to reducing resource consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a result, circularity has become a critical focus for our concrete producer customers.
To support these ambitions, we have developed the SikaCircle approach: a comprehensive solution designed to advance circularity in concrete through innovative admixture technologies across the entire value chain.
By leveraging our expertise and high-level support, our partners can strengthen their sustainability leadership and secure a competitive edge in an increasingly demanding market environment.
Opportunities for Sustainability
There are many opportunities to enhance resource efficiency and reduce carbon emissions throughout the concrete value chain. One of the most impactful levers is enabling circularity — designing concrete and its use to maximize efficiency, extend durability, and enable reuse and recycling at the end of its life cycle.
A circular approach to concrete should focus on the following key aspects:
How SikaCircle Supports Concrete Customers
SikaCircle aims to make concrete, its processing, and its use more sustainable by enhancing resource efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The SikaCircle approach consists of three stages: design, validate, and verify.
Design
The first phase involves Sika working with the customer to identify needs and objectives and outline solutions.
Validate
In the second phase, solutions are compared using life-cycle analysis and cost analysis and tested for feasibility in a Sika concrete laboratory.
Verify
In the third and final phase, a specific Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is drawn up for the favored concrete mix design by an authorized certification body, so that the customer gains a competitive advantage in the market.
A prime example of this innovation is Sika® ViscoCrete®, our globally leading superplasticizer technology. Used across a wide range of applications— from complex concrete formulations to long-lasting structural elements— Sika® ViscoCrete® supports sustainability without compromising performance.
With its modular polymer structure, Sika® ViscoCrete® can be tailored to meet specific customer needs. Its super plasticizing effect enables significant water and cement reduction, improving workability in fresh concrete and lowering both CO₂ emissions and costs. In hardened concrete, it enhances compressive strength and durability—supporting leaner structural designs and extended service life.
Incorporating high recycled content into concrete mixes can present challenges, such as increased water demand and reduced workability. Sika's new ViscoCrete® range addresses these issues effectively, offering several key benefits:
- Improved Workability: Maintains high slump retention, facilitating easier placement and compaction, even with replacement materials, without compromising other concrete properties.
- Enhanced Strength: Increases both early and ultimate strengths, allowing for faster construction timelines.
- Compatibility: Works effectively with recycled aggregates and supplementary cementitious materials, ensuring consistent quality.
Building on Sika® ViscoCrete® technology, a range of complementary
admixtures further supports sustainable, high-performance concrete—
tailored to the demands of modern construction.
A video showing the modular polymer structure of Sika® ViscoCrete®
Explore our other admixture examples
Sika ViscoFlow®
Workability Extension
Maintains concrete workability over extended periods without delaying setting time—ideal for long transport durations where early stripping on site is required.
Sika® Sigunit
Shotcrete Accelerator
Alkali-free solution enhances safety, reduces rebound, and improves environmental performance, including compatibility with low-carbon concrete (LCC).
SikaGrind®
Cement Efficiency Additive
Optimizes clinker grinding to reduce energy consumption and allows for a lower clinker-to-cement ratio—cutting emissions at the source.
SikaFiber®
Concrete Reinforcement
Micro-synthetic fibers reduce shrinkage cracking and enhance fire resistance; macro fibers improve energy absorption and toughness.
Sika® Stabilizer
Production Aid
Prevents bleeding, improves shrinkage behavior and pumpability, and supports integration of recycled materials into fresh concrete.
Sika® Retarder
Set-Time Control
Extends setting time to maintain workability in warm climates or during long transport—helping to minimize waste and increase flexibility on site.
SikaRapid®
Strength Accelerator
Boosts early strength development, enabling lower clinker content, faster formwork removal, or reduced steam-curing durations.
SikaControl®
Durability Enhancer
Increases resistance to environmental stressors, extending the service life of concrete structures and reducing maintenance needs.
Our annual weeklong customer event called Sika Concrete Days is a leading example of our commitment to sharing knowledge and providing hands-on technical support. By bringing together industry experts and customers, the event creates a valuable platform to explore Sika solutions, exchange best practices, and address market needs related to concrete sustainability—all in person.
Below are a few more examples of how we share knowledge and expertise.
A video showing highlights from the annual Sika Concrete Days event
Explore our other examples of knowledge sharing
Sika Handbooks
Four professional manuals - concrete, shotcrete, fiber-reinforced concrete and roller-compacted concrete - each with its own chapter on sustainability
Sika Concrete Snacks
Concrete technology training modules that provide information on ways to improve the circularity and carbon emissions of concrete
Sika CODE
Problem-solution-fit methodology and guidance tool to help solve aggregates-related issues in concrete production
The Sika Shotcrete App is a powerful digital tool that improves quality control and efficiency in sprayed concrete applications. It enables real-time tracking of early strength development, links results to specific mix designs, and generates automated strength curves and reports. Bluetooth integration streamlines data collection and reduces errors—ensuring consistent, compliant performance in tunneling and mining projects.
As an extension of the Sika Mix Design App, it builds on mix data to deliver a seamless digital workflow from concrete formulation to on-site application.
A video showing the use of the Sika Shotcrete App
Explore our other digital tools
Sika Mix Design App
Advanced tool for creating concrete mix designs optimized for sustainability (life cycle assessment), cost, and performance — powered by data from the Sika Sand App
Sika Sand App
Innovative algorithm that unlocks the hidden properties of concrete aggregates — delivering high-quality data directly to the Sika Mix Design App
The Sika reCO₂ver process transforms construction and demolition waste (CDW) into high-quality, purified aggregates and produces a CO₂-enriched powder — binding up to 15 kg of CO₂ per ton of CDW. Compared to conventional CDW aggregates, reCO₂ver aggregates offer significant advantages in concrete production: up to 50% reduction in water demand (and thus cement demand via a lower water/cement ratio), along with partial cement replacement using the inert reCO₂ver powder as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM).
A video showing the Sika reCO₂ver concrete recycling process
