The Concrete Jungle With A Little Bit Of Green In It
Mark Leger is the editor and part-owner of Huddle. This is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region.
I was walking down the street in downtown Toronto one day 25 years ago when I was suddenly struck by the “Concrete Jungle” around me – the sidewalks, the roads, block after block of densely packed tall buildings. In the same way we often find ourselves in awe of a natural landscape – a mountain or an ocean vista – I found myself marveling at the human-made character dominating my visual field – few trees, plants or birds in sight.
I’ve had the same feeling driving into New York when the Manhattan skyscrapers come into view, or when looking out the window from high up in a Shanghai office building.
As someone who grew up in a small town, whenever I’ve travelled, I gravitated to the largest and liveliest cities – New Delhi, Calcutta, Bangkok, Beijing, London, Paris, New York and Chicago. The large, densely packed cities are energizing, hubs of human activity. They celebrate unlimited, unchecked growth and I find that exhilarating.
Here’s the problem, though. As much as many urban planners tout the benefits of densely packed centres over suburban sprawl, population growth and the increased commercial activity, wherever it takes place, comes at a cost to the planet.
And even though I live in a lightly populated, small region, as the editor of a publication that celebrates stories about growth in the regional economy, I struggle with the problem of environmental impact. Constructing new buildings, producing, and selling goods for local and export markets for more and more people, here and around the world, is the traditional recipe for growth.
This also generally leads to increased greenhouse emissions on a local and global scale. So I get really excited about companies finding solutions to this problem that allows for growth and lessens the impact on the environment.
On this week’s Huddle “Home Office” podcast, I chat with Jennifer Wagner, the president of CarbonCure Technologies, a Dartmouth-based company on a mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry.
PODCAST: Why Amazon And Bill Gates Are Investing In CarbonCure
Cement, the main ingredient in concrete, is responsible for seven percent of global emissions. CarbonCure has developed a system to inject carbon dioxide into the mixing process. The CO2 is converted into a mineral, which makes the concrete stronger and reduces carbon emissions.
The company’s goal is to keep 500 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere every year by 2030 – the equivalent of taking 100 million cars off the road each year. Its market potential is huge, says Jennifer. It’s currently supplying technology to 300 concrete producers on four continents out of a potential pool of 100,000 around the world.
CarbonCure’s innovative approach has captured the attention of global corporate giants that can help them get there.
Bill Gates, for one, understands the potential global impact of the company’s technology. In a blog post in October of 2019, Gates wrote that the expansion of cities would continue booming for decades, “the equivalent of putting up another New York City every month for the next 40 years,” he wrote.
“The good news is that living in the city generally equates to a higher quality of life — you have access to better schools, health care, and job opportunities. The bad news is that the buildings themselves are a big contributor to climate change, and one of the five areas where we need to drive a lot of innovation if we’re going to avoid a climate disaster.”
In the blog, and through an accompanying video, Gates explains that CarbonCure is part of the solution if the growth can’t be slowed but can happen in a more sustainable way.
“Many of the buildings will be made using cement, a massive emitter of greenhouse gases. A company in Canada has discovered an innovative way to reduce cement’s carbon footprint,” he said.
Make that Atlantic Canada. In my chat with Jennifer, she said the company has always believed it could be a world-class player out of this region.
Gates is also an investor through Breakthrough, an impact investment fund that also includes Michael Bloomberg. Breakthrough first made an investment in CarbonCure in 2018 and was part of a new round of funding last fall that also included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund.
And Amazon is also a CarbonCure customer, using the technology in the construction of its new buildings. “Amazon is already our largest customer in terms of purchasing concrete. Amazon is a prolific builder,” CEO Robert Niven told Peter Moreira of Entrevestor last fall.
CarbonCure also has a partner in the Canadian tech giant Shopify, which is buying carbon offsets from the company as part of its $5-billion Sustainability Fund to support green industrial practices.
In my mind, I’ve always juxtaposed majestic natural settings with cities, which are magnificent but destroy the natural environment. The city of the future will still be a “Concrete Jungle,” but with some green in it too.
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