Workshop | Decarbonizing Concrete

The Materials Lab hosted a two-part workshop on strategies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the production of concrete. Part 1 of the workshop was a panel of three guests on ways in which the City of Austin and companies within the construction industry are currently tackling carbon emissions in concrete use. Speakers included Tom Ennis, an environmental engineer and Sustainability Officer at the City of Austin, James Prewitt, Technical Service Manager at Central Texas based concrete manufacturer Lauren Concrete, Inc., and Brandon Williams, Market Development Manager at CarbonCure Technologies.



Part 2 of the workshop kicked off with a presentation from Dougal Heap of Blue Planet Ltd. for a presentation on carbon sequestering aggregates, followed by a hands-on concrete casting. Each participant received a kit containing cement, sand, and Blue Planet’s CO2 sequestered aggregate, as well as chip board molds, and a small piece of a concrete impregnated fabric from Concrete Canvas.