Carbon Cure

Established in 2012, the goal of Carbon Cure was to reduce embodied carbon in the built environment by 500 million tonnes annually by 2030 to help slow climate change. To do this, Carbon Cure promoted a shift in purchasing behaviors across the construction supply chain, encouraging concrete plants to adopt a new type of concrete that removes and permanently stores significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere during the manufacturing process. Before launch, Carbon Cure’s founder Rob Niven attended a United Nations summit on Climate Change where he became aware of three barriers that might slow down the adoption of this new type of concrete: (1) investment in current technology and operations, (2) risk to business by trying something different, and (3) specifier and contractor reluctancy to switch from what they are used to. To reduce these barriers, Carbon Cure launched its ready-mix technology at the 2015 National Ready Mixed Association’s Concrete Works conference and found a few cement producers willing to test, adopt, and further prove the benefits of the technology. Additionally, winning several high-profile and credible competitions helped to increase recognition, validating and bringing attention to the product which ultimately helped drive demand. Carbon Cure also promoted the financial benefits of adoption – it can be quickly and easily installed in existing operations with no upfront licensing fees; the technology offers compelling profitability to participating cement suppliers; and some clients had been successful in securing grants because of the low carbon footprint of the resulting buildings. Working with cement producers, Carbon Cure helped them develop strategies for promoting the new cement to leading engineers, architects, and contractors, demonstrating the creation of value across all points of the supply chain. By 2021, CarbonCure concrete was used in over 300 concrete plants around the world, that had supplied 10 million cubic yards of the new concrete. This resulted in capturing 142,046,000 lb. of CO2 over nine years. 

 

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