What could be better than building concrete structures without creating more CO2? How about this: a new form of cement that actually absorbs carbon dioxide rather than being a primary source of its man-made emissions.

Consider this: 1 out of 20 units of carbon released by human activity into the atmosphere comes directly from concrete – this does not even take into account other construction-related activities, such as on-site vehicles or other building materials.

So how does an age-old, nearly-universal building material move from being destructive to the environment to being constructive for pollution? “By replacing the calcium carbonates used in cement formulation with magnesium silicates, and by using a low-temperature production process that runs on biomass fuels … developing a new class of cement that offers performance and cost parity with ordinary Portland Cement, but with a negative carbon footprint.”

Continue reading below
Our Featured Videos

Novacem’s Carbon Negative Cement is two steps in the right direction, simultaneously displacing a carbon-intensive building block and substituting it with something that goes beyond simply doing no harm. As for awards: “Novacem is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for 2011 and features on MIT Technology Review’s list of the ten most important emerging technologies for 2010. It is also on the Global Cleantech 100, is a Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation winner and a Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer for 2010.”