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Can cement and concrete be made greener?

Sep 24, 2024
The building materials are a major source of greenhouse gases.
Limestone is heated up in kilns to around 2,732 degrees to make cement.
nicolamargaret/Getty Images

New organization to measure whether companies' carbon removal plans actually work

Aug 7, 2024
The Carbon Removal Standards Initiative just launched in the U.S. this week.
There currently isn’t a great way to prove whether a firm's carbon removal plans will actually work.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Biden administration invests $6 billion in low-carbon industrial production

Mar 25, 2024
The funding aims to cut the cost of cleaner manufacturing in industries like food, paper and chemicals.
Steel production generates a lot of emissions and is hard to decarbonize. Above, training in steel work at an iron workers union local in Dayton, Ohio.
Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images
Coal has increasingly been replaced by alternative fuel sources, like natural gas and renewables.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Lego says making bricks from recycled bottles produces more carbon than new plastic

Sep 25, 2023
Another example of how hard it can be to recycle polymers.
It takes a lot of energy and money to recycle plastics.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Big Tech is buying into the early carbon-removal market

Sep 7, 2023
Microsoft is paying $200 million to a company using crushed rock to absorb carbon, and the Frontier consortium is backing emerging technology.
Investing in emerging environmental technology "signals to consumers or to their customers that this is a company that's a leader, that's ahead of the game," said Daniel Korschun, a marketing professor at Drexel University.
Tim Heitman/Getty Images for BIG3

Could the carbon credit model help save threatened species?

Aug 9, 2023
A growing number of scientists and economists see a novel kind of credit as an important tool to help reverse global declines in biodiversity.
Land in Orsa Besparingsskog, a Swedish forest that is partnering to pilot a new biodiversity credit approach.
Martin Pilstjärna

For public good, not for profit.

What's a "carbon border adjustment mechanism," and what does it mean for U.S. exports?

Dec 14, 2022
The EU already imposes an environmental charge on EU-made goods. Its new plan would assess the same charge on imports.
The European Union implemented the world’s first tax on the carbon content of imported goods Tuesday. Above, a container ship at the port of Hamburg, Germany.
Gregor Fischer/Getty Images

E-bikes are soaring in popularity, but some still have reservations 

Oct 14, 2022
"I find myself looking at the other bikers going slowly and going ‘just get out of my way,’" says Ian Bogost, contributing writer at The Atlantic.

Fracking flourishes as era of net-zero carbon looms

Aug 15, 2022
The energy industry is emphasizing the controversial technique over traditional drilling, partly for its shorter timetable.
David McNew/Getty Images