To mark World Environment Day, this month’s 21CC podcast digs into a complex and difficult question: Should we just stop building? Construction is the single biggest source of greenhouse gases,…

The government of Ireland has issued guidelines aimed at reducing the amount of embodied carbon in public construction projects. The measures look to reduce the use of conventional concrete, increase…

Ten companies in the construction sector have formed an alliance to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.   The Community of Sustainable Equipment Players, or the Communauté des Acteurs du Matériel…

Austrian materials producer Wienerberger says its carbon-neutral concrete roof-tile factory in Hungary will “set a new standard across Europe”. The €30m, 7,300-sq-m plant in Hejopapi will be fully automated, with…

In Australia, a voluntary alliance of tier 1 contractors, government agencies, specialist subcontractors, engineering firms, cost consultants, architects, and material manufacturers – representing the whole construction supply chain – are…

A new company that makes lower-carbon cement from the carbon dioxide captured from the flue of a conventional cement plant has opened its first facility in Redding, California. The new…

Heidelberg Materials North America has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract for a carbon-capture system at its cement plant in Edmonton, Canada to contractor Kiewit and MHI-LCSC, part of…

Engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald has won a contract from Gasunie to assess the feasibility of an offshore hydrogen network in the Dutch North Sea. Gasunie is a gas network operator…

Toronto-listed contractor Aecon has joined Montreal’s Concordia University to research new low-carbon construction materials through a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU). They’ll research low-carbon concrete while exploring opportunities for pilot…

Dutch architect UNStudio and Luxembourg’s HYP Architects have won a competition to design the Kyklos building, a mixed-use project with sustainability at the heart of its design. Kyklos is located…

Saudi developer Roshn and US concrete maker Partanna plan to build a carbon-negative concrete factory near Riyadh. Partanna’s method uses a brine activator to cure concrete at room temperature, consuming…

Three big construction sector bodies in Europe yesterday published a manifesto on achieving carbon and resource neutrality, outlining a long-term plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions and use less materials.…

Heidelberg Materials has produced what it describes as the “world’s first carbon-captured net-zero cement”. Heidelberg says the carbon capturing process was used at its plant in Brevik, Norway, and has…

US engineer Jacobs has been selected by ThyssenKrupp to manage the decarbonisation of Europe’s largest steel mill in Duisburg, western Germany. The project involves substituting coke blast furnaces with hydrogen-powered…

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has called on the Irish government to raise the Value Added Tax (VAT) on demolition projects from the discounted rate of 13.5% to the…

Mexican cement company Cemex is to provide 20,000 cubic yards of low-carbon concrete for an extension to Houston Methodist’s Centennial Tower, the world’s largest medical complex. Structural work on the…

US carbon-negative concrete maker Partanna says it will set up a factory in Saudi Arabia after signing a collaboration agreement with the developer of the $63.2bn Diriyah tourism giga project.…

The state of California will issue new rules limiting the embodied carbon allowed in commercial buildings larger than 100,000-sq-ft in area and school projects over 50,000-sq-ft. Embodied carbon means the…