Green Concrete: Decarbonizing Construction with Recycled Glass
May 8, 2024
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This podcast explores the use of green concrete to reduce carbon emissions in construction, highlighting Harvard University's pilot testing with Urban Mining Industries. They discuss challenges, strategies, and innovative products like Positive made from recycled glass to cut down greenhouse gas emissions. The focus is on decarbonizing construction materials and measuring carbon emissions throughout the supply chain.
29:00
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Quick takeaways
Green concrete with recycled glass reduces carbon intensity in construction.
E-liability approach by Bob Kaplan aids accurate carbon emission measurement in supply chains.
Deep dives
Concrete's Role in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Concrete production contributes nearly 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from cement production. Cement, a key component of concrete, is a major source of emissions due to the high temperatures needed for its production. Urban Mining Industries offers a green concrete alternative that replaces half of the cement with recycled glass, significantly reducing carbon intensity.
Challenges in Measuring Supply Chain Emissions
Measuring emissions within complex supply chains poses challenges for organizations. The liability approach, introduced by Professor Bob Kaplan, focuses on accurately attributing emissions from suppliers and internal operations to output products. The approach seeks to ensure transparency and reliability in emission accounting, essential for sustainability reporting and decarbonization efforts.
Blockchain's Role in Emission Data Validation
Blockchain technology offers a solution for validating emission data across supply chains. By creating a distributed ledger to track emissions data from suppliers to end-users, organizations can enhance transparency and trust in reported carbon footprints. The use of blockchain ensures verifiable data accuracy and reliability, crucial for measuring and reducing environmental impacts.
Changing Mindsets Towards Lower Carbon Footprint Products
Harvard's initiative highlights a shift towards prioritizing lower carbon footprint products in procurement decisions. Companies are increasingly recognizing the value of sustainability measures, not only for reducing emissions but also for enhancing brand reputation. By incentivizing suppliers to offer low-carbon alternatives and embracing measurement-driven decision-making, organizations can drive positive environmental impacts and differentiate products based on their carbon content.
The first of a series on decarbonizing the roots of value chains, where we’re looking deep into supply chains that serve many industries, this episode focuses on concrete. Concrete is one of the world’s most popular materials, and it accounts for nearly 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, most of which comes from cement– the glue that binds conventional forms of concrete. We focus on one type of green concrete produced by Urban Mining Industries that replaces half of the cement with recycled glass that makes its product much less carbon intensive. We present this story through an episode of the HBR Cold Call podcast, where host Brian Kenny interviews HBS professors Shirley Lu and Bob Kaplan. They discuss how Harvard is pilot testing the use of green concrete in its current construction projects as part of the university’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. They’ll also discuss various methods to measure carbon emissions, including the e-liability approach Bob Kaplan lays out in a recent Harvard Business Review article.
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