Mapei Zero line: portfolio extended to products for the building sector

Mapei’s ongoing commitment for an increasingly sustainable world of construction continues: a world where clients, designers and professionals can choose to construct using durable, high-performance products with CO₂ fully offset in the entire life cycle ^[1].

The new Zero line has been extended with the introduction of nine new products for the building sector, whose CO₂ emissions measured throughout their life cycle in 2023 have been offset through the acquisition of certified carbon credits in support of renewable energy and forestry protection projects.

Mapei offers the construction industry sustainable and durable solutions for numerous different applications: protecting reinforcement rods, repairing surfaces and structures and anchoring applications using thixotropic, hi-flow mortars with normal-set or rapid-set properties. These have now become Zero: Mapefer 1K, Mapegrout 430, Planitop Smooth&Repair, Mapegrout Thixotropic, Planitop Smooth&Repair R4, Mapegrout Hi-Flow, Mapegrout Easy Repair, Mapefill and Mapegrout Easy Flow.

Giulio Morandini, head of Mapei’s building products line, stated: “Products for the building industry from the Mapei Zero line combine sustainability and durability. Through fatigue tests carried out at an external independent laboratory, by applying cyclical dynamic loads, we can demonstrate that our Zero mortars are more resistant to cracking compared with normal concrete, including high quality concrete. Thanks to these results we can affirm that, by using these materials, the service life of structures is extended by preventing aggressive agents present in the environment easily penetrating and degrading repaired structures. But for us that wasn’t enough, so we optimised the product formulas to lower their carbon footprint and then offset their residual emissions”.

Offsetting residual CO₂ emissions of the products is the final step in a process involving the Corporate Environmental Sustainability team and the Mapei Research laboratories.

Mikaela Decio, Mapei’s corporate environmental sustainability group leader, explained: “We work specifically to reduce the carbon footprint of our formulates, and to offer quality and sustainable products, formulated with innovative, lightweight raw materials made from recycled materials developed to reduce energy consumption with very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC). To measure the impacts our products have on the environment we use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, the results of which are verified, recorded and published in certified documents called Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)”.

The Zero line by Mapei also includes four adhesives and a grouting product for installing ceramic and stone tiles.