--- title: Rock-solid news in the concrete industry - The Hustle description: In a climate tech first, companies captured CO2 from the atmosphere and built concrete with it. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1643818535-HS-News-Brief_2023-02-07T041255.060Z.webp --- # Rock-solid news in the concrete industry ![Jacob Cohen](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png?width=48&height=48&name=IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png) [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen) [Jacob Cohen Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/ImJacobCohen) Published: February 07, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 You may not realize it since the material is heavy, and sits still, but the production of concrete [accounts](https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/6/23584501/climate-tech-air-carbon-capture-concrete) for ~3x the amount of carbon emissions as aviation. ![Rock-solid news in the concrete industry](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1643818535-HS-News-Brief_2023-02-07T041255.060Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1643818535-HS-News-Brief_2023-02-07T041255.060Z.webp) That figure is especially concerning with the world’s building stock on track to [double](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/02/03/2601156/0/en/Heirloom-CarbonCure-Technologies-and-Central-Concrete-Achieve-First-Ever-Storage-of-Atmospheric-CO2-Captured-By-Direct-Air-Capture-In-Concrete.html) by 2060. Fortunately, in a climate tech first, companies say they’ve not only removed CO2 from the atmosphere, but trapped it in concrete, and used that concrete to construct new things. #### **What happened?** As part of a small-scale demonstration, Heirloom — a startup claiming to run America’s only operational Direct Air Capture facility — began the process by capturing CO2 at their headquarters in Brisbane, California. - The company, which has raised [$54.3m](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/heirloom-d756), is backed by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and counts Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify as customers. Next, CarbonCure Technologies, which has [produced](https://go.carboncure.com/rs/328-NGP-286/images/CC_OP-MillerandLong-AmazonHQ2.pdf) CO2-captured concrete for Amazon’s second headquarters in Virginia, injected the captured CO2 into wastewater. CarbonCure has raised [$12.4m](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/carboncure-technologies) and is also backed by Gates. Finally, Central Concrete Supply Co. used the processed wastewater to make new concrete, which was used for various construction projects around the Bay Area. #### **What happens now?** Scaling up is key. The experiment used just ~38 kilograms of captured CO2. According to the EPA’s [calculator](https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator#results), that’s what a gas-powered car emits every ~94 miles. It’ll also be important for these companies to analyze whether other parts of the process have a negative impact on its benefits. In the meantime, momentum across climate policies, tax credits, and federal funding — including [$3.5B](https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-administration-launches-35-billion-program-capture-carbon-pollution-air-0) toward carbon removal — is moving the space forward. Topics: [Climate](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/climate) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Kinda gross, but kinda cool? 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