Construction and industrial materials maker Saint-Gobain said Tuesday that its building products subsidiary CertainTeed will spend CAD $91 million (about $72 million) to convert its location in Montreal, QC to North America’s first zero carbon gypsum drywall plant.

The investment includes CAD $40 million provided by the government of Quebec’s EcoPerformance program. During the project, Saint-Gobain will upgrade equipment at its Montreal wallboard production site, enabling the company to cut carbon emissions at the location by up to 44,000 mt/yr.

New equipment installed in the plant will also reduce the plant’s energy use by 30%. The company plans to power the facility using renewable electricity from Hydro-Québec, and will replace equipment that is powered by natural gas with newer technologies that use renewably-sourced electricity.

“Today we begin a historic new chapter at our Montreal gypsum plant, leading our industry towards a more sustainable future while increasing our production capacity at a time of unprecedented customer demand,” said Dennis Wilson, Vice President Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) North America and Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Circular Economy Solutions, in a release. “We thank our partners in the Quebec Government, the City of Saint-Catherine and Hydro-Québec for their support, and we thank our team for pushing the limits of technology and imagination to bring this bold project to life. The electrification of our Montreal plant is a massive step forward in our broader goal to decarbonize construction materials and a significant step towards our global goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.”

The project at the Quebec plant is part of a broader company effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Work on the upgrade is slated to commence next summer and the new equipment is expected to be operational by late 2024.

“CertainTeed is an important industrial player, who provides quality jobs and has been involved in the well-being of our community for almost 50 years. It is a source of pride to see it continue to grow by undertaking this zero-carbon shift,” Ville de Sainte-Catherine Mayor Jocelyne Bates said in a statement.

Powder & Bulk Solids reported this April that Saint-Gobain is launching a $118 million project to expand its roofing shingle plant in Oxford, NC. The firm revealed plans to invest $32 million to upgrade equipment at its CertainTeed insulation plant in Chowchilla, CA in February.