Sequestering carbon in concrete
Concrete use represents 7–8% of global annual carbon emissions. Urban surfaces including roads and sidewalks are made of concrete, and this represents an important opportunity to reduce and sequester carbon. Key Smart Surfaces Coalition partners working on concrete innovation include the World Cement Association, the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, and the National League of Cities.
The Smart Surfaces Coalition is also supporting the deployment of carbon-sequestering concrete through its engagement with CarbonStar. A government-backed quantification method for calculating the embodied carbon of concrete, CarbonStar is providing much-needed standardization in the measurement process. The CarbonStar Technical Specification was written with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group) by a committee of leading industry, academic and government experts from the US and Canada. The Coalition’s CEO, Greg Kats, served as the Committee Chair in developing CarbonStar, which is being used to specify the carbon intensity of the concrete used for the San Francisco International Airport’s multi-billion dollar expansion project, and has already gained widespread adoption by Canadian government agencies.