Spotted: Wastewater treatment systems and rice farming produce a variety of greenhouse gasses (GHG), such as methane and nitrous oxide, that have a greater warming potential than carbon dioxide over the short term. Identifying when and where high volumes of these GHGs are emitted is essential if we are to tackle them, ensure reductions targets are being met, and mitigate climate change. However, there are few projects aimed at monitoring such emissions in an accurate and affordable way.
A new project at Surrey University hopes to change this with new, lightweight wireless gas sensors. The sensors will be attached to helium kites flown by autonomous robots and used to monitor the level and direction of emissions.
The research will involve several departments from across the university, such as fluid dynamics and robotics, and will incorporate skills such as data analysis. The sensors will be built by university spin-out Surrey Sensors, while Allsopp Helikites will provide the helium balloons. The technology will be tested in a variety of locations, including Thames Water treatment works and rice paddies in Spain.
The work is supported by a £620,000 (around €719,000) grant as one of 13 projects nationwide to be funded by a £12 million investment (around €13.9 million) from UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council, the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra), and Innovate UK. The funding seeks to support UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 — climate action.
Tackling methane emissions is the subject of a number of recent innovations spotted by Springwise, including a seaweed-based feed supplement that could reduce methane emissions from livestock and more sustainable methods for rice farming.
Spotted: Proposed international regulations will mandate at least a 40 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions from ships by 2030. Alisha Fredriksson, co-founder and CEO of London-based company Seabound, discovered that shipowners lack feasible options to meet this requirement.
The realisation motivated Fredriksson to develop a solution, leading to Seabound’s lime-based carbon capture equipment, which can be installed near a ship’s smokestack to capture up to 95 per cent of CO2 emissions from the exhaust.
To curb the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, Seabound implements its carbon capture system near its funnel. Quicklime pellets are consistently introduced into the device, undergoing chemical reactions with CO2 in the exhaust to form limestone. Upon docking, the pellets can then be used for future CO2 capture on other vessels, sold as construction materials, or divided into pure CO2 for various purposes.
Seabound’s innovative technology holds promise for various vessel types, including container ships, cruise ships, and dry bulk carriers. What sets this company apart is its seamless retrofitting capability for existing ships, rendering decarbonisation of shipping more accessible, rapid, and scalable.
The startup recently achieved a key milestone when, in partnership with global shipping company Lomar, it completed a successful pilot of its technology on-board a commercial container ship. The 240-metre-long vessel, which was chartered by liner shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, was equipped with a prototype version of the system that captured around one tonne of CO2 per day. Having completed the pilot, Seabound will now progress to creating its first full-scale systems, which it hopes to deliver commercially from 2025 onwards.
Springwise has previously spotted other innovators looking to make the maritime industry greener, including a startup that’s developed a ship-cleaning robot and a company that’s presented concept designs for a zero-emission ship.
beyond net-zero: the future of architecture in luxembourg
UNStudio, in collaboration with HYP Architects, has been selected as winners of a design competition for the Kyklos building, the final piece of Luxembourg‘s Belval redevelopment project. This visionary project prioritizes sustainability, pushing boundaries by aiming for the lowest possible carbon footprint through innovative design and material selection. While net-zero operational buildings are a commendable goal, UNStudio recognizes that the majority of a building’s carbon footprint (90%) arises from the materials used, not its operation over the years. This understanding fuels their mission to create buildings with minimal embodied carbon. As the architects say: ‘Only timber is not the answer. UNStudio calculates the lowest carbon footprint for the new Kyklos building in Luxembourg…and the result is hybrid.’
In the design of Luxembourg’s Kyklos Building, the architects at UNStudio and HYP Architects have developed the Carbon Builder tool, empowering designers to analyze and optimize the carbon impact of their projects. This tool played a crucial role in the Kyklos design, leading to an impressive 80% reduction in embodied carbon compared to a standard Luxembourg office building. The building will take shape with a hybrid steel-concrete structure, carefully selected for its superior long-term carbon performance. Using 100% recycled steel and optimized concrete mixtures further minimizes the project’s environmental footprint. This approach translates to an expected embodied carbon footprint of 115kg CO2 equivalent/m2, a significant improvement compared to the 580 kg/m2 of a typical Luxembourg office building.
the final piece of Luxembourg’s Belval development aims for lowest carbon footprint with hybrid design
a Sustainable Connection: The Kyklos and its Place
The Kyklos building in Luxembourg is on track to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Platinum certifications, reflecting UNStudio’s commitment to both environmental and human well-being. This dedication ensures a healthy and sustainable environment for its occupants, aligning perfectly with the values of Belval and its residents. ‘Kyklos,’ meaning ‘circle’ in Greek, embodies its symbolic role as the final loop completing the Place des Bassins design. This central square, featuring two interconnected basins, represents the transformation of the former industrial site into a vibrant urban space. The Kyklos building, with its sustainable design, becomes the third loop, signifying the future of Belval’s development and its commitment to a greener tomorrow.
UNStudio develops an optimized, hybrid steel-concrete material for lasting impact Kyklos’ carbon footprint will be slashed by 80% compared to standard buildings the project is on track to achieve BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Platinum certifications
Spotted: We must rapidly decarbonise existing global systems, and capture carbon already emitted, to prevent global warming from exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement. But the scale of the problem is huge: to meet this target, 10 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide needs to be captured every year by 2050.
Scientists at the US Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Columbia University may have found a good use for this captured CO2 – carbon nanofibres, which are versatile materials that can be used in everything from batteries and sensors to wound dressings and filtration technology.
The technique the team has developed uses a combination of thermochemical and electrochemical reactions to turn captured CO2 and water into nanofibres. In breaking the nanofibre production up into two parts, the researchers made it possible for the method to require only relatively low pressures and temperatures.
To begin, the scientists worked backwards from the idea that carbon monoxide (CO) is far more useful for producing carbon nanotubes than CO2. So, they began working out how to efficiently convert CO2 to CO and went from there. Electrocatalysts work to break CO2 and H2O into CO and H2.
In the next step, an iron-cobalt thermocatalyst helps to form the carbon nanofibres. Previous direct strategies, which convert CO2 directly into nanofibres using heat, require temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees Celsius. As the thermocatalyst is dealing with CO, however, the researchers were able to produce nanofibres at temperatures of 400 degrees Celsius.
The nanofibres have a wide range of uses, but the researchers point to their potential in strengthening cement and concrete, where the carbon could be stored for a minimum of 50 years.
Carbon capture technologies are on the rise, as innovators work to mitigate the impact of global warming. Springwise has also spotted this company that captures carbon straight into concrete as well as this ultra-fast CO2 direct air capture material.
Spotted: Although we are seeing some progress towards climate goals in certain areas of the economy – such as mobility and electricity generation – industries that require very high process temperatures remain difficult to decarbonise, and are overwhelmingly dependent on fossil fuels like natural gas.
Now, Estonian cleantech startup Efenco has come up with a creative solution to reduce emissions from industries that require temperatures above 300 degrees Celsius. This novel technology can be applied to natural-gas-powered processes in the short term, but will also improve the efficiency of combustion processes run on hydrogen – a clean fuel that is tipped to play an important role in industry as the world moves away from fossil fuels.
The company, whose name is a shortened version of efficient energy conversion, has created High Energy Ray Ceramic (HERC) technology that makes high-temperature combustion of gassy fuels more efficient. Using a patented cold plasma technique, the company’s ceramic chip recycles heat from typical industrial heating systems to produce higher temperatures with fewer emissions.
Plasma is a high-energy state that enhances chemical reactions. In the case of commercial heating for steel, pulp, and paper manufacturing – as well as district heating and cement production – the HERC technology has the potential to eventually improve the combustion efficiency of natural gas by 40 per cent and hydrogen by up to 75 per cent. So far, however, the HERC prototype has demonstrated an 18 per cent combustion efficiency gain.
No external source of energy is required to make the HERC chips work, and they can be easily installed into existing gas boilers. No additional machinery or expertise is needed.
Overall, use of the HERC chips can make significant reductions both in terms of fuel costs and carbon emissions. Efenco currently has six partnerships in place and is working towards the elimination of 77 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030 through the installation and use of its technology. Having recently raised €4.5 million in funding, the company plans to continue advancing the development of the chips and begin designing a version for domestic and small-scale use.
Improving efficiency and usefulness while reducing environmental harm is the focus of many technologies, with Springwise’s database including examples of a high-performance magnet that does not use any rare earth elements and a nano aerogel that cuts refrigeration emissions.
Spotted: As industries around the world push ahead in their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some of the changes being introduced are, ironically, contributing to the continued growth in the global plastics market. As vehicles seek to reduce weight in order to run more efficiently, plastics are often one of the first materials to be considered as a replacement for steel and other heavy metals. That is only a short-term solution, however, as UN member states negotiate a legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution.
Innovators are increasingly looking for multi-purpose solutions to the complex plastics problem. Many companies seek to reduce waste or emissions while cleaning current damage to the environment. One such company, Paris-based Dioxycle, created a system that uses industry emissions as feedstock for the production of sustainable manufacturing of the chemical ethylene.
The process directly captures emissions from manufacturing plants and separates the carbon from impurities. After cleaning, the captured carbon passes through layers of catalytic membranes in the company’s proprietary low-temperature electrolyser. Powered by renewable energy, the carbon is then transformed into ethylene, a building block of modern manufacturing. The chemical is used in heavy industry to produce products that range from diesel and ethanol to recyclable plastics, adhesives, and furniture. Dioxycle’s goal is to recycle 600 megatonnes of carbon annually and it is currently testing the technology in two locations – one in France and one in California.
An important aspect of the system is its affordability. The company explicitly works to provide end users with a sustainable ethylene chemical product that is equal to or lower in cost than fossil fuel-produced versions.
In the archive, other innovations spotted by Springwise that highlight ways of using captured carbon include nanotubing that could replace copper wires in myriad items and carbon-negative textiles.
Spotted: Few people stop to think about the carbon emitted by browsing the internet, but running and cooling servers and powering data transfer uses a lot of carbon. Each video or display ad impression represents an average of one gramme of CO2 emissions, which may not sound like a lot, until you consider how many ad impressions are viewed worldwide.
Now, Sharethrough, an omnichannel supply-side advertising exchange, and Scope3, a supplier of supply chain emissions data, have partnered to create GreenPMPs, the first supply-side platform (SSP) to offer media with net-zero carbon emissions.
The GreenPMP initiative enables brands to allocate a portion of their ad spend towards the funding of high-quality carbon removal activities, in order to compensate for the carbon emissions generated by running digital ad campaigns. Ultimately, this should make it easier for brands to reach their goals of net-zero emissions.
The programme places a Green icon on ads to alert consumers that it is sustainable. Using Sharethough’s GreenPMPs site, advertisers can measure their emissions across the entire programmatic supply chain in real time, using data from Scope3. Using a Carbon Emissions Estimator, advertisers can get an approximation of how much carbon waste an ad campaign could potentially generate, and then remove their ads from high-emission or low-performing sites to reduce their overall campaign emissions.
Surveys show that consumers tend to favour brands that demonstrate their sustainability and eco-credentials. In the archive, Springwise has spotted other brands making a sustainable change, including a pasta brand that saves energy by promoting passive cooking and a fashion brand that promotes clothing resale.
Mass timber’s reputation as the go-to low-carbon construction material is a problematic oversimplification that is leading to greenwashing, says carbon expert Amy Leedham in this Timber Revolution interview.
“We’re seeing a little bit of oversimplification and glorification of mass timber,” said Leedham, who is carbon lead at engineering consultancy Atelier Ten.
“The main thing that you see in the media, and one of the reasons it’s becoming such a popular building material, is that it can have a significantly lower embodied carbon than steel or concrete,” she told Dezeen. “I say ‘can’ because it’s not always the case.”
Amy Leedham (top image) is carbon expert at Atelier Ten, an engineering firm behind buildings including the mass-timber John W Olver Design Building in Massachusetts (above). Photo by Albert Vecerka/Esto
Mass timber is a term for engineered-wood products – strong structural components that typically consist of layers of wood bonded together.
It is increasing in popularity in the construction industry due to wood’s ability to sequester carbon, which means timber generally has a lower embodied carbon when compared to materials such as concrete and steel.
However, according to Leedham, this has caused mass timber to become synonymous with carbon neutrality, leading to the fallacy that all “mass-timber buildings are carbon neutral” due to the stored carbon offsetting the emissions expended by them.
“Critical factors that need to be considered”
“Mass timber construction can definitely be an important pathway toward carbon neutrality, but there are other critical factors that need to be considered,” she told Dezeen.
“If it’s not done well, mass timber buildings can have very high carbon emissions, whereas concrete buildings can have quite low carbon emissions,” she said.
“We’ve worked on concrete projects with certain concrete suppliers where they’re really focusing on reducing emissions associated with the concrete mixes and those can have quite low carbon emissions. There’s no black and white, it’s all hues of grey.”
Atelier Ten has designed the mass-timber extension of the Portland Museum of Art with Lever Architecture. Image by Darcstudio
Carbon neutrality is achieved when no additional carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere in the creation and operation of an entity, such as a building. This can either involve eliminating emissions in the first place, negating emissions through offsetting, or a combination of both.
Assuming that using mass timber achieves this through its sequestered carbon alone can overlook several factors, such as the carbon footprint of other materials used to construct wooden buildings, including the interior finishes.
“Mass timber buildings have a lot of other material in them, especially in places where the code is challenging, especially for taller mass timber,” Leedham said.
Additionally, the carbon footprint of mass timber can also be impacted by how and from where the wood was sourced and transported, and what happens to it at the end of its useful life.
If the wood used in a building’s construction ends up in a landfill, it is likely to be incinerated or left to decompose, with its sequestered carbon released back into the atmosphere – cancelling out the carbon benefits.
“We can only control up to the point that the building is built”
“Forestry practices are super important to the overall carbon impact of mass timber, as well as end-of-life treatment,” explained Leedham.
“As designers and engineers, we can only control up to the point that the building is built. We can design in certain aspects so that it can be treated well at the end of its life in 100 years, but we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The overlooking of these “critical factors” recently prompted Leedham to write a series of myth-busting essays on engineered wood, co-authored and published with US studio Lever Architecture.
The essays shine a light on the main misconceptions about mass timber that are circulating in the industry, in an effort to expose the truth behind them and promote the responsible use of the material in architecture.
“Mass timber is super important to the future of low-carbon construction,” she said.
“But it’s also really important that it’s done right. If it’s done incorrectly, then it’s just another form of greenwashing.”
Alongside the misunderstandings about mass timber and carbon neutrality, the essays also debunk beliefs that “all wood is good wood”, that it is always more sustainable than concrete, and that mass-timber buildings actually absorb carbon.
Co-author Jonathan Heppme, who is a principal at Lever Architecture, said the authors have heard these myths in discussions about their own projects, but also at industry events.
“These myths emerge very frequently”
“Variations on these myths emerge very frequently where architectural and engineering professionals meet to discuss construction and procurement with project owners, builders, manufacturers and trade representatives,” Heppme told Dezeen.
“These myths surface at symposiums, trade shows, conferences, lectures, or in conference rooms where decisions around the incorporation and advancement of mass-timber systems are being discussed,” he continued.
Both he and Leedham hope their publication will contribute to “more nuanced narratives from the mass timber industry” and advocate “healthy innovation” in this space.
In the essays, the authors outline how the industry can combat these myths – such as by encouraging architects to make conscientious sourcing decisions, which can, in turn, incentivise the timber industry to manage forests sustainably, and by improving understanding of carbon neutrality and how it can be achieved.
Leedham believes timber, steel and concrete all have roles in the future of architecture. Photo is of John W Olver Design Building in Massachusetts by Albert Vecerka/Esto
Leedham told Dezeen that these solutions could also all be supported by the roll-out of worldwide carbon taxes for construction projects, which would require payments for the greenhouse gas emissions emitted by building components.
Not only would this lead to the more responsible use of mass timber, she said, but it would also encourage more sustainable practices when it comes to using materials such as concrete and steel.
“Carbon taxes would definitely speed up the adoption of any type of more sustainable construction practice,” said Leedham.
“If you had to pay for all the carbon emissions before you got your building permit, I think that would encourage the use of mass timber, it would encourage sustainable forestry practices, and it would actually encourage both the concrete and steel industry to reduce their emissions.”
Mass timber will not “dominate the industry”
This last point is particularly important as she believes that concrete and steel will remain vital materials in the future of architecture.
“The reality is that we need everything. Mass timber is one of a kit of parts,” said Leedham.
“I don’t think mass timber is going to ever dominate the industry, just because of the sheer volume of construction that’s happening, and I don’t think it wants to.”
“We absolutely need steel and concrete industries to also focus on reducing their emissions because we’re going to need all three primary structural materials,” she added.
This echoes the views of construction material expert Benjamin Kromoser, who told Dezeen in an interview that mass timber will not become a mainstream building material because it uses too much wood
“Wood is a limited resource,” he said. “It always has to be a balance between what we take from the forest to use for building construction and how much grows again.”
Timber Revolution This article is part of Dezeen’s Timber Revolution series, which explores the potential of mass timber and asks whether going back to wood as our primary construction material can lead the world to a more sustainable future.
Spotted: In January 2020, the UN International Maritime Organisation introduced new regulations to limit vessels from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5 per cent (or 0.1 per cent in some areas). However, it is difficult for governments and regulatory authorities to enforce the new sulphur limit because current sulphur monitoring relies on expensive and time-consuming manual processing and emissions tests that can take up to one day per ship. In fact, fewer than 10 per cent of vessels are checked each year. Now, startup Marine Hound may have an answer.
Marine Hound has developed a “sulphur emission sniffer system”. It consists of low-power gas analysers located in smart buoys and ground stations around harbours. These continuously patrol emissions from ships in the area. When high sulphur emissions are detected, the relevant authorities are alerted and a drone is activated to collect emissions samples from the suspect vessels.
The company then analyses the samples and provides actionable data to enforcers. This helps enforcement agencies develop more efficient and effective monitoring and reporting, making it easier for authorities to move the shipping industry towards full sulphur cap compliance.
The Malta-based startup is still in development, but they have recently secured €100,000 in funding to help them progress to the next phase in the Blue Economy Acceleration Programme. Founder Nicholas Borg Calleja has announced that over the next six months, the company will be “accelerating key milestones, working with our strategic partners from Finland and Estonia to integrate novel gas analyser and drone technologies, and consolidate the hardware and software solution in Malta.”
The new IMO emissions standards are not the only reason many vessels are switching to low-sulphur fuel and systems. Many shipping companies are also motivated by a commitment to sustainability. Luckily, a number of innovations are making this easier. Some recently covered by Springwise include a low-carbon biofuel designed for ships and the use of smaller, electric ships.
Spotted: According to the UN Environmental Programme, the construction industry accounts for around 11 per cent of total global carbon emissions. Now, Dutch startup StoneCycling is hoping to make a dent in this figure with bricks made from recycled construction debris. The company currently makes recycled bricks containing 60 per cent waste, and in the future expects to bring that figure up to 100 per cent.
Currently, most of the company’s bricks are made up of two to three waste streams, although the company works with 60 waste streams overall, including construction waste such as ceramic toilet bowls, roof tiles, and steel. The waste is sorted, ground, moulded, and fired in a kiln, just like traditional bricks. However, while traditional clay bricks are very energy intensive, the recycled waste bricks can be fired at lower temperatures, so their manufacture releases less carbon.
The type of waste used gives different colours and textures to each collection of bricks. For example, some drive-through Starbucks locations in Europe were built with StoneCycling bricks speckled with white; those are made from crushed toilet bowls. The bricks are especially useful in repairs to historic buildings, as the variation in colour and finish makes the bricks appear more historically accurate. The company also makes BioBased tiles, a tile product that is 300 per cent stronger than concrete blocks and creates 95 per cent less CO2.
StoneCycling describes its mission as creating, “A circular world where waste is synonymous with raw material. Cities and their buildings will be constructed of building materials that are made from 100 per cent waste, are 100 per cent recyclable at the end of their life cycle, and absorb more carbon than it takes to create them.” The concept was conceived at the Design Academy Eindhoven in around 2009, when then-student Tom van Soest worked on upcycling waste found in vacant buildings. After graduating, Van Soest founded StoneCycling with his friend Ward Massa, who manages business strategy.
In order to reduce carbon emissions, it is vital to improve the sustainability of the construction and materials sector. With the cement industry alone generating somewhere between four and eight per cent of all global man-made carbon emissions, the use of recycled resources is seen as vital. Springwise has seen this in a wide number of recent innovations, including carbon-negative insulation made from grass and construction materials made from plastic waste.
