Transformation of the bricks sector in Colombia - A successful intervention model

Colombia’s 1,508 production units and 2,435 brick kilns produce over 12 million tons of bricks annually. Its brick sector is primarily composed of artisanal kilns (75%), which produce 11% of the country’s bricks. A 2015 Climate and Clean Air Coalition brick sector inventory showed the sector employs 21,000 people directly and almost 8,000 indirectly.  The sector emits approximately 785 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) of black carbon annually.   

Since 2015, the Environmental Business Corporation (Corporación Ambiental Empresarial (CAEM)) has run a Climate and Clean Air Coalition project to get Colombia’s brick sector to implement more sustainable production practices. It focuses on three key areas of work: (1) creating  an enabling public policy environment to reduce black carbon emissions and increase sustainability, (2) increasing scientific knowledge and using technical tools and instruments to develop detailed inventories, emission measurements, and cost benefit analyses, and (3) increasing awareness and incentives for brick producers.   

Colombia continues to progress efforts to replace artisanal kiln technologies with improved, efficient, low carbon technologies. The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism have worked with the brick sector to develop a mitigation waybill to track and certify the sector’s contribution to the reduction of national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Colombia’s brick sector is regulated by resolution (909/08).