It’s #EarthDay so let’s talk about cement & concrete: the 2nd most used resource on the planet after water.
Every year cement production causes ~8% of our global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s roughly the same as India’s emissions -- the world’s 3rd largest polluter. 1/n

All eyes would be on cement now to declare its contributions to the Paris accord if it was a country. But production and emissions from cement only keep increasing. To keep up with rising population by 2060 we’ll need to double the current number of buildings on the planet. 2/n

And there are hardly any coherent national policies in place to limit the emissions from cement. One problem is that 50% of the emissions comes from inherent material processes i.e. break down of limestone to lime to form cement releases CO2. This can be hard to limit. 3/n

But it’s not like solutions don’t exist. We can use ‘greener’ cement, achieving the same strength by mixing in local resources like clay, industrial waste, soil, etc. We can also use cement more efficiently and with less wastage. All this can significantly cut emissions now. 4/n

There are more solutions like alternative cements, 3D printing & carbon capture emerging. But we need to develop context-specific, concrete policies (excuse the pun) for cement. Standards need to change, incentives need to be provided, large-scale projects need to be setup. 5/n

Some awesome people have already been working on solutions and policies. But more needs to be done. And part of that involves educating ourselves to demand a change, to demand green alternatives to cement as consumers. Suppliers & policymakers won’t be far behind. 6/end