Moving light, but with strength: Joe Green sees potential in hi-tech recycled building materials
With new Ligra product, founder Boediman Widjaja seeks to set an eco-friendly example for the industrial waste and construction sector
BUILDING materials manufacturer Joe Green is committed to a zero-waste manufacturing process. Its concrete panels are made of recycled materials, and waste or residual material from the manufacturing process is also reused.
The result of this process is a panel that is both sustainable and lightweight, allowing Joe Green’s end customers to build green buildings at lower costs – both financial and environmental.
Lighter building materials lead to lower transportation costs, lower energy costs and less time spent on construction. The use of recycled materials also allows buildings to score better in sustainable building certifications.
But Joe Green, which was founded in 2006 by Boediman Widjaja, is now facing competition from other building materials companies that are also keen to offer lightweight products. One example is autoclaved aerated concrete walls, which contain air pockets to make them lighter.
So, what will continue to set Joe Green apart? Widjaja, who is both chairman and managing director, is looking to the company’s lightweight green aggregate (Ligra) product – the fruit of several years of research and development.
Enter Ligra
Joe Green’s Ligra development dates as far back as 2015, as the company considered ways to stay ahead of the competition. “We knew that we had to further improve our own product to truly stand out in the market in the long run, because just being lightweight (at some point) was not enough,” said Desmond Ng, technical director at Joe Green.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Friday, 12.30 pm
ESG Insights
An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues.
More than just lightweight and environmentally friendly, Ligra boasts strength and durability. These two factors tend to be compromised in lightweight materials, said Widjaja.
“Lightweight products in the market these days tend to end up very porous, which could compromise the final solid nature of the panel eventually,” he said.
Water could end up seeping into wall panels more easily, and create a more drying texture in the long run.
Widjaja said Joe Green’s Ligra panels prioritise density and firmness without compromising on the lightweight element.
In its development, Joe Green faced the challenge of sourcing raw materials. “To produce lightweight aggregates, one would need to import them, said Ng.
“We needed to find the best and nearest source (of such material) and ensure that these supply chains were stable.”
This turned out to be difficult. “Most neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, are not (consistently) working on lightweight aggregates,” Ng said.
The company could have been sourced for these materials in further markets, such as China, India or Thailand. “But the high costs of imports did not make sense for us,” he added.
In addition, many of these lightweight aggregates did not meet Joe Green’s standards, as they did not come from natural sources. So, in 2017, Joe Green started its own inventory of aggregates instead.
These materials have been or are being used in various projects: residential ones such as the up-and-coming Tengah estate, healthcare buildings from National University Hospital to Sengkang General Hospital, and local universities such as the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University and Yale-NUS College.
“As Ligra continues to be lightweight, transport of the material continues to be cheaper, which saves on overall costs as well,” Ng said.
“With buildings made from Ligra, the dead load of the entire building will be 30 per cent lighter, which means now reinforcements can be lighter as well.”
Construction processes are also sped up, and hence more efficient, he added. “Furthermore, in that process, a lower dead load due to less concrete (mass) used brings down the carbon footprint as well.”
Joe Green has begun mass producing Ligra at its factory in Johor, as the company prepares to promote Ligra with market partners this year. Said Widjaja: “Within this year, we are expecting to see a good response to the product.”
A key R&D focus
The “continuous investment” in research and development (R&D) that has made Joe Green’s Ligra product possible has been a core component of the company’s activities, said Ng.
“While Ligra has been a main focus in our R&D work, we also spend time and effort improving the systems and operations behind our products,” he said. This may take the form of improving existing precasting structures and making lighter 3D-printed products.
“It’s always good to sell the standard panel; but in the past, we’ve received feedback that we were not serving enough customisation needs,” Ng said. “So, from 2015, we’ve been working on more custom options of our panels, to offer various sizes and material types.”
With Ligra, wall panels can be made solid or hollow, for example, in the event that wires need to be inserted within the wall. Ng said customised offerings have minimised risks in the construction process and reduced wastage by 5 per cent.
With potential enhanced margins from Ligra, the team at Joe Green is hopeful that more resources can be allocated for R&D.
A ‘revolution’ for the concrete industry
Ng is looking forward to continuing Joe Green’s development of Ligra.
“There will be different models,” he said. “Ligra is made from waste glass. We hope to treat bottom ash to make Ligra in the future.”
It may take some time for Joe Green’s product to win over customers, though. “Added costs must be justifiable,” Ng said. “But we are sure that market recognition will come quickly for us.”
A recent report by French multinational Schneider Electric and the Singapore Green Building Council said 61 per cent of business leaders cited cost and return on investment as their biggest concerns when it comes to green building adoption.
At the same time, an overwhelming 95 per cent of respondents agreed that 80 per cent of Singapore’s buildings should be “green” by 2030.
The report surveyed more than 500 business leaders across 340 multinational corporations and 160 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMES) in Singapore.
Such demand presents fertile ground for startups and SMEs keen to enter the green space. Shannon Lung, head of The FinLab, an innovation accelerator by UOB, said: “Sustainability is the path to the future.”
The FinLab supports green-tech companies through The Greentech Accelerator.
Last year’s inaugural edition accepted 12 SMEs and green-tech startups, and offered funding of up to S$150,000 for pilot programmes to commercially deploy solutions.
Meanwhile, Joe Green has ambitious expansion plans for the South-east Asian region. In addition to bases in Singapore and Malaysia, the company has a plant in Jakarta, Indonesia.
It plans to target every major city in Indonesia.
“Considering Indonesia’s sizeable population of over 250 million people, we hope to better tap the market by building a plant in each of Indonesia’s major cities, in a bid to move beyond Singapore’s market, which is comparatively much smaller,” said Widjaja.
He is also entertaining the possibility of going global, having had recent conversations with potential partners in China and Dubai.
“However, it’s not easy to get good commercial terms on these fronts (as yet); so this continues to be a work in progress,” he added.
“I daresay that Ligra is set to revolutionise the concrete industry,” Widjaja said.
“As we move light but strong with this new technology, we are on track to setting an example of strength for the industrial waste and construction sector while emphasising environmental responsibilities.”
This is the first of a 5-part Green Business series, in collaboration with UOB, exploring sustainability trends across businesses and industries.
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
