Category: Green Building

Guest Blog Post by ARCC Student Thomas Hackbarth

I want you to take a moment to think about how much concrete is used within the world. Think about your community, think about this country, then think globally about how much concrete is used. Concrete is a huge producer of C02 emissions which greatly impacts global warming. Concrete is used in most construction projects around the world. Now think about if we could make a difference by capturing Co2 emissions and injecting it into concrete mix which would greatly reduce the emissions released into the atmosphere. Great news, this technology exists and now is the time to make a change within all of our cement manufacturing facilities to help reduce global warming and help save the planet.

Concrete will always be used within construction because it is strong and long lasting. Why don’t we help to reduce the damage to our planet by using carbon concrete technology. This technology can be easily installed to any existing cement facilities.  According to Carboncure’s Sustainable Concrete “When CO2 is injected into the concrete mix it makes the concrete stronger and reduces the amount of mix need per batch”. This means the cost of installing this new technology will be offset by the money the company will be saving on mix in the long term. If we can spread the awareness about this technology in our communities I believe more people will start using carbon concrete in their construction projects. Since learning about carbon concrete technology I am now passionate about it and would love to use concrete that will help save our planet. If we don’t start to make a change this planet will not be able to sustain itself. When we inject the co2 into the concrete the co2 is bonded to the concrete and can never be released into the atmosphere. According to Carboncure’s Sustainable Concrete “One cubic yard of carbon capture concrete saves 25lbs of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere”. If we take those numbers and think about how many cubic yards of concrete are in a residential home, office building, or a high rise building. Then think about how much Co2 could be captured and stored if we used this new technology in our future construction projects. This concrete can be used both residentially and commercially. Anywhere concrete is used today we can choose to start replacing it with carbon capture concrete.

Co2 emissions are causing global warming and literally killing this planet. This is something that everyone is starting to see and feel around the world. In the past many people were in denial and now people see the science and the changes that are happening around the world so they no longer can deny the truth. This is the time for us to spread awareness to our communities, politicians, and all elected official about anyway that we can help reduce climate change. One way that we can do this is to increase awareness about the Carbon Capture concrete technology that exists in the world today. When we spread awareness we can increase facilities that produce carbon capture concrete and we can start making positive strides toward reduce our global carbon dioxide emissions. Next time you start a construction project find a carbon capture facility near you. This is a change that starts locally but has potential to save the world.

Work Cited

Carboncure’s Sustainable Concrete Solution. CarbonCure Technologies Inc. (2022, August 23). Retrieved November  7, 2022, from https://www.carboncure.com/