By mid-century, two out of every three persons on the planet will be living in urban areas. These growing urban populations face two simultaneous climate challenges; extreme heat events attributed to Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects, and Global Climate Change (GCC).”

These projections come from a 2021 study co-authored by MIT researchers Hessam AzariJafari, Randolph Kirchain, Xin Xu and Jeremy Gregory evaluating the impact of cool pavement on urban centres.

Several measures are being undertaken to address UHI mitigation around the world. These include increased urban vegetation and the installation of “cool roofs.” However, not all these strategies are within the control of municipal decision-makers, making it difficult for cities to implement effective solutions.

Yet, pavement material change is one strategy over which cities have a strong influence, if not total control, the researchers write, and it could make a significant difference.

Read the article.

“Roman concrete to me is fascinating: It’s still standing after all this time and constantly repairing,” said Prof. Admir Masic in his MIT News feature. Read the article.

On November 6 and 7, we welcomed over 50+ industry professionals from across the concrete, construction, and architecture sectors for a researcher-led poster reception, presentations, and breakout group discussions. We thank all those who attended and contributed to a great conversation.

The New York Times featured Dr. Admir Masic’s research on ancient Roman concrete’s self-healing ability and how to harness it to boost the resilience of today’s concrete. Read the new article.

In their new op-ed in RealClearEnergy, Hessam AzariJafari, Ipek Bensu Manav, and Andrew Laurent explain that while the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s new low-carbon labels for construction materials are an important step forward, they must account for emissions beyond production to best aid purchasing decisions. The authors propose that the EPA use life cycle assessment tools to generate actionable emissions ranges that account for context and climate, and also expand the range of materials covered under the labeling program.

Read the op-ed.

What makes a building “green?” Conventional understandings of green buildings focus on the greenhouse gas emissions associated with constructing the building. However, as our new dashboard demonstrates, exterior wall material choice has a significant impact on hazard repairs, regular wear-and-tear, and operational energy usage. Dashboard prepared by Dr. Ipek Bensu Manav.

Try the dashboard.

Electron-conducting concrete combines scalability and durability with energy storage and delivery capabilities, becoming a potential enabler of the renewable energy transition. In a new research brief by the CSHub and MIT ec³ hub, we explore the mechanics and applications of this technology.

Read the brief.

Our project investigating how to enable widespread carbon capture, transport, and storage at scale for hard-to-abate sectors has been selected for funding by the MIT Energy Initiative’s Future Systems Center. Led by Research Scientist Elizabeth Moore, the research is exploring the potential of a large-scale pipeline network based around the location of “carbon hubs,” or collections of nearby industrial facilities. We are thrilled to join the nine other energy research projects selected in this cohort and thank MITEI for their support.

Click to read more.

Roads are the backbone of our society and economy, taking people and goods across distances long and short. They are a staple of the built environment, taking up nearly 2.8 million lane-miles (or 4.6 million lane-kilometers) of the United States’ surface area.

These same roads have a considerable life-cycle environmental impact, having been associated with over 75 megatons of greenhouse gases (GHG) each year over the past three decades in the United States. That is equivalent to the emissions of a gasoline-powered passenger vehicle traveling over 190 billion miles, or circling the Earth more than 7.5 million times, each year. 

Click to read more in MIT News.

A new one-pager created by the Reduced Carbon Concrete Consortium (RC3) covers the utility of environmental product declarations (EPDs) for pavement decision-making.

Key takeaways:

• EPDs are not intended to be used to compare the environmental impacts of asphalt and concrete
• It may be possible to compare EPDs if:
  • Materials are of the same type
  • EPDs are developed under the same PCR
  • Materials meet the same performance requirements
• EPDs in North America quantify cradle-to-gate emissions, but do not consider construction, use, or end-of-life phases (all three comprise 78% of the life cycle emissions).
• Cradle-to-gate EPDs can be compared if all subsequent life cycle stages are equivalent for both EPDs.
• EPDs are useful for:
  • Providing a benchmark for continuous improvement in environmental impacts
  • Evaluating compliance with Buy Clean thresholds
  • Estimating the carbon budget for a project

Further reading:
1. AzariJafari et al. (2023). Suitability of EPDs for Supporting Life Cycle and Comparative Analysis of Concrete Mixtures. Environmental Science and Technology, 57 (19), 7321-7327. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c05697.
2. AzariJafari et al. (2021). Towards comparable environmental product declarations of construction materials: Insights from a probabilistic comparative LCA approach. Building and Environment, 190, 107542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107542.
3. Hossein et al. (2022). The role of performance metrics in comparative LCA of concrete mixtures incorporating solid wastes: A critical review and guideline proposal. Waste Management, 140, 40-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2022.01.010.