Due to its versatility, durability, and affordability, concrete has become the world’s most popular building material. Since it is used on such an immense scale, it generates roughly 8% of global CO2 emissions. These emissions derived from production are referred to as embodied carbon.

However, the world will continue to need concrete to address 21st-century challenges like climate change, housing crises, and sustainable development. This means that industry, government, and academia must collaborate to reduce its environmental impact. The CSHub is evaluating the potential impacts of a variety of pathways to lower the embodied carbon of cement and concrete, including the possibility of achieving carbon-neutral—or even carbon-negative—concrete.

The Basics of Cement and Concrete

• MIT Climate: Concrete (January 2021)
• MIT News: Cement vs. concrete — their differences, and opportunities for sustainability (April 2020)

News

• MIT News: Concrete's role in reducing building and pavement emissions (September 2021)
• MIT News: Predicting building emissions across the US (September 2021)
• MIT News: Visualizing cement hydration on a molecular level (June 2021)
• The Hill: Resilience is the New Sustainability (May 2021)
• The Hill: Before building sustainably, let's define 'sustainability' (May 2021)
• Fortune: The Last Mile of Carbonization (February 2021)
• MIT News: Unraveling Carbon Uptake in Concrete Pavements (January 2021)
• The Wall Street Journal: Growing Bricks and More Ways to Shrink Concrete’s Carbon Footprint (February 2020)

Topic Summaries

• Adding Environmental Impacts into the Procurement of Building Products (January 2021)
• A Primer on Building Environmental Product Declarations and Life Cycle Assessment (July 2018)

Research Briefs

• Solutions for Carbon-neutral Concrete in U.S. Pavements (August 2021)
• Life Cycle Carbon Uptake of the United States Pavement Network (January 2021)
• Mitigation Solutions for GHG Emissions in New Construction (August 2020)

Webinars

Challenges and Opportunities of Using EPDs in Environmental Performance Comparisons of Concrete (February 2021)

Lowering the Embodied Environmental Impacts of Cement and Concrete (February 2020)

The Role of Concrete in Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions (August 2020)

Related Peer-reviewed Publications

• Vahidi, E., Kirchain, R., Burek, J., Gregory, R. "Regional variation of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies for the United States building sector." Applied Energy. Volume 302, 15 November 2021, 117527.
• Gregory, J., AzariJafari, H., Vahidi, E., Guo, F., Ulm, F.J., Kirchain, R. "The role of concrete in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of US buildings and pavements."PNAS. September 14, 2021 118 (37).
• AzariJafari, H., Guo, F., Gregory, J., Kirchain, R. "Carbon uptake of concrete in the US pavement network,
  Resources, Conservation and Recycling." Volume 167, 2021,105397.