A solid way to cut carbon

Robert Niven is determined to reduce the carbon footprint of urban areas across the globe. With the support of a network of global leaders, including financial backing from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, whose investor group includes Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg, Niven and his team are poised to reduce CO2 emissions by 500 megatonnes per year, roughly equivalent to taking 71 million cars off the road annually.

Niven’s mission began in his university days in the early 2000s, when the British Columbia-born chemist and engineer was studying the way carbon dioxide reacts with concrete. After realizing just how much CO2 is emitted when making cement —a key ingredient in concrete—he went about designing a way to put it to good use and founded CarbonCure , based in Halifax, in 2007.

CarbonCure’s technology, now in 132 plants around the world, including LafargeHolcim, Brampton Brick, Permacon and CBM in Toronto, injects waste CO2 as concrete is being mixed. It reacts with calcium ions, and is then converted into a mineral and locked in the concrete, prevented from being released as a greenhouse gas. Not only is the process cost-effective, the end product is stronger concrete.

To achieve Niven’s ambitious goals, the technology, which requires no capital investment

—CarbonCure charges its customers a monthly licensing fee, which is offset by cost savings resulting from manufacturing efficiencies— needs to be in 100,000 plants worldwide. However, large concrete suppliers own many plants, so the mission isn’t totally impossible. “Companies like the technology because it’s a plug and play,” he says. “It’s cleantech that can work in Shanghai and Birmingham.”