[instrumental music]
- [narrator] After water, concrete is
the most utilized substance on the planet.
Its key ingredient, cement,
is one of the biggest contributors to our climate crisis,
responsible for up to 8% of the world's CO2 emissions.
But what if those pollutants could be harnessed
to create an environmentally friendly solution?
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- We're gonna have a product that will be
7% less carbon than what an ordinary
Portland cement paver would have produced.
- [narrator] Eric Long runs EP Henry,
a family-run concrete business
that's been around for more than 100 years.
The company recently decided to invest
in new sustainable technologies.
- Why is this so important,
why do people need to be thinking about this?
- We all need clean air to breathe.
It's about the health of the human being,
and the health of our environment,
and the health of the globe, and the health of our planet.
That's what this is really all about.
- How do you change an entire industry?
You're one company.
- We're one company, but we believe
you have to start somewhere,
and we're willing to put our money up and start.
And that's what we've done.
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In the production of cement, that is the primary
emissions problem, 'cause it takes a huge amount
of fossil fuel energy to actually produce tonnage of cement.
- [narrator] Ordinary cement emits
greenhouse gases in two ways.
One, it uses fossil fuels to heat
limestone at super high temperatures.
And two, when the limestone chemically transforms,
that process releases CO2 into the atmosphere.
- So you're actually using CO2 emissions
in your product, burying it?
- We are.
What we're gonna do now is push this material
into a chamber, and we're gonna close the chamber off,
and then we're gonna flood the chamber with the CO2.
The CO2 is actually gonna replace the water.
The water's gonna be moved out.
The CO2 then will be sequestered inside the paper forever.
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- Solidia is the startup behind
this revolutionary technology.
- We've helped the industry figure out
how to reduce the amount of CO2 that's emitted,
but then we also take CO2 and actually store it
and convert it in the concrete permanently
so it's never coming out again.
- What are the barriers right now
to bringing this to the bigger marketplace?
- I think the industry has embraced
new technologies. They're for it.
Now the question is how do I manage
the transition to this new technology?
- [narrator] Sustainability is not often
the top priority for builders.
- Well, we absolutely have to create a better product
because people are paying good money
for the products which they are buying.
However, there will come a tipping point
where the environmental aspect of it will outweigh
the positive attributes, or the performance of the product.
- [narrator] Solidia's product is still undergoing
a variety of tests and is not yet
approved for use in building codes.
Cost is also a barrier, and some experts think that barrier
will be hard to overcome, but EP Henry disagrees.
- Once we have, you know, mass volumes and being able to produce
on a much larger scale, then, you know, that will change.
- There's certainly support that we could offer
to the cement and concrete industry
to help mitigate some of the cost associated with that,
but I think also to have that, you know, pull through from governments,
municipalities, where they would actually specify
products like these that have lower footprint.
- [narrator] New York Assemblymember
Robert Carroll is trying to do just that.
He introduced a bill that would require
low-carbon concrete to be used in state projects.
- When the state is procuring concrete,
and cement is the largest component,
and the most carbon-intensive component,
instead of valuing price first,
we value the global warming potential.
If the products are of the same price, the one that
has less global warming potential is the one that wins.
- [narrator] It would also give a tax credit to those
who use these more environmentally friendly technologies.
- So if we don't figure out a way to lower emissions
when we're building the next bridge, skyscraper,
school, home, we're not gonna fully tackle the problem
of global warming and emissions.
- [narrator] Assemblymember Carroll
is seeking a sponsor for his bill in the state Senate.
He hopes to see the bill
reach the governor's desk in late 2020.
- Is it upsetting to you to know
that this technology exists, that you know how to do this,
but the world isn't there yet?
- The world isn't there yet,
but we have to take it one day at a time.
We're gonna get the world there.
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