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Furniture giant Herman Miller has announced that its entire portfolio of the iconic Eames Molded Plastic Chairs will now be made using 100% post-industrial recycled plastic. According to the company, this is the equivalent of about 122 tons of plastic per year and a 15% annual carbon reduction... View full entry
The Biden Administration has unveiled the first set of recommendations under its Federal Buy Clean Initiative, an undertaking that aims to drive the development of American-made, low-carbon construction materials, while also supporting job growth. During a visit to the Cleveland-Cliffs Direct... View full entry
Researchers from Flinders University’s Chalker Research Lab have developed a more sustainable alternative to making bricks by using waste products. The team used low-cost feedstocks to make lightweight but durable polymer building blocks, which can be bonded together with an... View full entry
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded $39 million to 18 projects dedicated to developing technologies that can transform buildings into net carbon storage structures. The initiative titled the Harnessing Emissions into Structures Taking Inputs from the Atmosphere (HESTIA) program... View full entry
A new multi-use complex made nearly entirely of wood has been introduced to Barcelona’s Trinitat Vella district. Called the Center for Community Life, the new public building will form part of a community facility hub for the districts of San Andreu and Nou Barris set to be built in the... View full entry
When old office blocks are demolished, their steel frames are typically smelted down to be recycled, emitting thousands of tonnes of carbon in the process. But at One Broadgate, the steel beams that once framed the London headquarters of inter-dealer broker TP Icap Plc will instead be salvaged from the site and recycled by developer Fabrix. Chief Executive Officer Clive Nichol says the example proves it’s possible to “apply the circular economy to structural elements of buildings.” — Bloomberg Green
Fabrix has purchased 139 tons of steel from the contractor behind the demolition of One Broadgate and plans to use it on other projects in London. The process, known as urban mining, recovers and resells raw materials from waste products. Related on Archinect: How 'Anthropocene mining'... View full entry
Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB has announced that it has produced the world’s first fossil-free steel. As part of a trial delivery, the steel was sent to its first customer, Swedish automaker Volvo Group. The first-of-its-kind steel was developed through HYBRIT, an initiative formed in... View full entry
Global design practice Perkins&Will, in collaboration with climate action-focused software company C Change Labs and nonprofit organization Building Transparency Canada, has been awarded a grant to develop a tool that facilitates the design of low-carbon buildings. Called the Tally Climate... View full entry
After three years of intensive research and development, international engineering firm, Thonrton Tomasetti launches Beacon, a novel embodied carbon measurement tool that gives users the ability to make more informed decisions during the design process by measuring embodied carbon. Beacon... View full entry
With support from the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance’s Innovation Fund, [Vancouer] collaborated closely with the building industry and its partners, and, in 2016, Vancouver’s City Council approved a Zero Emissions Building (ZEB) plan. That plan launched a bold commitment to make near-zero emissions homes and buildings the new normal in Vancouver by 2030. Few cities had yet gone that far. — Fast Company
Writing in Fast Company, Sean Pander, green building manager for the city of Vancouver, lays out the multi-faceted approach the Terminal City has taken to chart a new course with regards to carbon emissions generated by the city’s buildings. The effort, according to Pander, involved... View full entry
Scientists from round the world are meeting in Germany to improve ways of making money from carbon dioxide.
They want to transform some of the CO2 that’s overheating the planet into products to benefit humanity.
They don’t claim the technology will solve climate change, but they say it will help.
Carbon dioxide is already being used in novel ways to create fuels, polymers, fertilisers, proteins, foams and building blocks.
— BBC
BBC environmental analyst, Roger Harrabin, details three novel ways to turn excess carbon dioxide into potentially profitable carbon-negative products: high-grade fertilizer from agricultural waste products; food-grade beverage carbonation and biogas from horse manure; and most interesting for the... View full entry
According to the CDP report, the cement industry is the second-largest industrial emitter of carbon after the steel industry. And when accounting for its use in human-made structures, it is responsible for more than a third of the world’s carbon emissions. But unlike the transportation sector, in which a new type of fuel can dramatically decrease the sector’s pollutants, cement’s problem is, well, cemented in its formulation [...] — The Outline
In his longform piece for The Outline, Mike Disabato explains why the cement industry shows little interest in earnestly reducing the tremendous environmental impact of its (nearly) indispensable product. "No one in the cement industry has seriously engaged in the herculean task of enhancing the... View full entry
Since 2008, Solidia Technologies [...] has been quietly developing a new cement-making process that produces up to 70% fewer CO2 emissions at a cost that DeCristofaro claims is on par with or better than conventional cement.
Solidia, which was formed in a bid to commercialize ideas developed at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is not the first company to attempt to make environmentally friendly cement. But industry experts say it’s the most promising yet.
— Quartz
"Of course, the startup now needs to show that this lower-emission cement can be made into concrete that’s at least as good as others, and can be scaled up in a way that’s affordable," Quartz explains. "That’s what Solidia is working on right now." View full entry
