It is abundantly obvious from scientific evidence that an urgent climate crisis is underway, which is mostly due to excessive carbon dioxide emissions.
A layer of gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and can take thousands of years to evaporate has been produced by the carbon produced by years of human industry.
Scientists have warned that if we don’t take action within the next 10 years, the damage will become irreversible, so we must quickly achieve “net zero” carbon emissions by eliminating as much carbon as we emit.
Every company and organization should make the switch to carbon negative to reverse the current climate emergency. Utilizing carbon-negative materials in business ideas and goods is one way to meet predetermined objectives.
Carbon Negative Products: What Are They?
A product is considered carbon-negative if it benefits the environment by removing more carbon from the atmosphere throughout its full life cycle.
A product is said to be carbon-negative if it removes more carbon from the atmosphere throughout its full life cycle, benefiting the environment.
A potent strategy for exceeding carbon-neutral goals is the use of carbon-negative materials. Designing with these materials can greatly enhance the value of your product and your sustainability objectives:
- Replace any environmentally damaging components of your goods;
- Include principles of the circular economy in your supply chain;
- Quicken your progress toward sustainability by lowering or eliminating the carbon footprint of your products;
- Offers a competitive edge in your sector:
- Enhances how customers view your company’s brand;
- Promote health and have a favorable influence
What distinguishes items that are carbon-negative from those that are carbon-neutral?
To create products with a carbon footprint that is as low as possible, manufacturers must also invest in carbon offsets to cover the whole life cycle of carbon emissions that cannot be avoided.
Carbon is used as a resource in products that, when considered from cradle to gate, are carbon negative. This indicates that less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere as a result of the product’s production than there would have been otherwise.
Innovative methods are used to remove carbon from the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming, in this sort of carbon-negative innovation.
Table of Contents
11 Carbon Negative Products Reducing Greenhouse Emissions
The following are carbon-negative products that have helped to reduce greenhouse emissions
1. Bioplastic
A carbon-negative bioplastic that can be utilized in automobile interiors and exteriors has been created by the German company Made of Air.
The substance contains biochar, a compound rich in carbon produced by burning biomass without oxygen, preventing the carbon from evaporating as carbon dioxide.
Shams said that biochar will still look the same a thousand years from now if it were simply left on the ground. Only if you burned it would the carbon be released again.
According to Made of Air, the bioplastic was recently utilized to cover a car dealership in Munich, with the installation retaining 14 tonnes of carbon.
2. Mycelium Insulation
Mycelium is being used by startups, including the London-based Biohm, to make building insulation that is naturally fire-resistant and absorbs “at least 16 tonnes of carbon every month” as it grows.
In the process of eating agricultural waste, mycelium, a biomaterial that makes up the root system of fungus, sequesters the carbon that was previously held in this biomass.
Mycelium has been referred to as “part of the solution” to make buildings carbon negative by sustainability expert David Cheshire.
He said to Dezeen, “It’s naturally fire retardant.” It has better insulating qualities than the majority of ordinary insulation, and it also captures carbon.
In specialized bioreactors, mycelium may be produced for a low cost and with rapid growth. It can be cultivated in molds to make practical items like packaging and lighting.
Additionally, it can be transformed into new materials and goods that resemble leather, like Mylo. These can then be used to make clothing and purses.
3. Carpet Tiles
By 2040, Interface, an American carpet tile producer, wants all of its products to be carbon-negative, beginning with this year’s Embodied Beauty and Flash Line carpets.
They are made primarily of recycled plastic and different biomaterials, which, according to the brand, absorb more embodied carbon than the products themselves during production.
According to Interface, the tiles are carbon-negative “from cradle to gate,” which means that the lifecycle of the products after they leave production is not considered.
According to Interface sustainability chief Jon Khoo, “it’s not carbon-negative for its entire lifecycle since components of transit and end-of-life use we can affect but not control at this stage.”
“So, using what we can, we decided to concentrate on becoming carbon negative.”
4. Wood
As a fully-grown tree can remove 22 kilograms of CO2 from the atmosphere in a year, the material is carbon-negative as long as it is sourced ethically and any trees that are cut down are replaced with new ones.
The amount of carbon stored in the wood must be evaluated against the emissions produced during processing and transportation, and replacement trees must be allowed to grow for a sufficient amount of time to allow for their harvest and conversion to carbon-storing materials.
The massive quantity of waste created by the timber industry is one issue with wood, though. Each tree is only used in half, and the sawing operation produces large volumes of offcuts and debris. Additionally, only around 10% of wood is recycled.
In an interview with Dezeen as part of the carbon revolution, sustainable-design guru Willian McDonough said, “Just think about cutting wood.” “It’s a bad thing, isn’t it? We are always removing things.”
5. 3D-Printed Wood
The paper and wood industries’ leftover sawdust and lignin may now be converted into a 3D printing filament by the additive manufacturing business Forest.
The company thinks that by using garbage to create products, it will avoid the need to cut down more trees and keep the carbon from being released again when the waste wood decays or is burned.
Many trees might be saved, according to McDonough. It’s enjoyable and rather lovely, both.
6. Olivine Sand
One of the most widespread minerals on earth, olivine, when broken and dispersed over the ground, can absorb its mass in CO2.
This makes it suitable as a fertilizer and a landscaping alternative to sand or gravel, while the carbonated kind (shown above) can be utilized as an additive in the creation of 3D printing filaments, cement, and paper.
According to Teresa van Dongen, who has added the mineral to an online collection of carbon-capturing products, “it absorbs CO2 quite easily.”
“Depending on the circumstances, one tonne of olivine sand can absorb up to one tonne of CO2; you only need to spread it out and nature will take care of the rest.”
7. Concrete
The Montreal-based startup Carbicrete has created a type of concrete that absorbs carbon during manufacture by using scrap slag from the steel industry in place of emissions-intensive cement, which is accountable for 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
The method now in use relies on captured industrial emissions, which means that while it lessens the number of fresh emissions being released into the atmosphere, it does not affect CO2 levels. However, the final product would be carbon-negative after the corporation uses direct air capture (DAC) to remove its CO2 from the atmosphere.
It’s negative emissions, said Chris Stern, CEO of Carbicrete, to Dezeen. “With every brick we manufacture, we remove CO2 from the system.”
8. Carbicrete
Benefits of Carbicrete Technology for Reducing Carbon: A concrete plant that produces 25,000 CMUs per day can reduce emissions by 20,000 tonnes annually by using carbicrete technology.
A business called Carbicrete developed ground-breaking technology. It enables producers of concrete blocks to utilize carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
The company’s goal is to lower the carbon footprint of the building sector by developing a carbon dioxide-sequestering solution. Concrete blocks made by Carbicrete don’t include cement. Steel slag is used in place of cement, which is combined with the remaining materials, and is then cured in CO2 chambers.
The buildings made from the blocks will continue to store carbon dioxide for as long as they are standing. Carbicretes blocks are therefore excellent in lowering the carbon footprint of the construction sector.
Carbicretes concrete blocks are stronger and last longer than conventional concrete blocks in addition to being more environmentally friendly. As a result, they can contribute to lessening the construction industry’s carbon impact and enhancing the quality of construction projects.
9. Hanson Regen Cement
Using Regen in concrete results in a decrease of about 850 kg of embodied CO2 when compared to using regular cement (per 1 tonne of Regen).
Leading building materials provider Hanson has created a new, carbon-negative type of cement. The business’s new regen cement is produced using recycled industrial waste and absorbs carbon dioxide during production.
It makes concrete endure longer and is more environmentally benign than cement substitutes like fly ash.
Major construction projects all over the world now use Hansons innovative cement, and the business is aiming to increase output to keep up with the rising demand for carbon-negative building materials. Hanson is paving the way in the fight against climate change with the introduction of Regen cement.
10. Food
One of the increasing numbers of businesses using emissions from industrial plants to produce foods and beverages is Solar Foods. The Finnish business converts carbon dioxide into Solein, a meat replacement, using bacteria.
The CO2 is added to a fermentation tank along with hydrogen and various nutrients, which the bacteria then consume to produce protein, which is then harvested and dried to produce a powder that resembles dried soy.
Currently, the industry is the source of carbon dioxide; however, carbon from captured air emissions is a possibility.
By employing a small fraction of the land and resources required by traditional agriculture, the technology has the potential to meet humanity’s protein demands while freeing up more space for afforestation, solar energy, and other methods of combating climate change.
Agriculture plays no part at all in the production of Solein, according to Solar Foods. It is not constrained by climatic factors and does not require arable land or irrigation.
11. Vodka
Vodka is created by Brooklyn-based Air Co using CO2. The company uses a reactor to generate ethanol, which is subsequently used to distill vodka, by dissolving carbon dioxide in it with water and a special catalyst.
The statement made by Air Co that “we devised a mechanism to take surplus carbon from the air and turn it into ultra-refined, covetable items” is false because the CO2 comes from factory emissions, which means that the claim reduces rather than reverses greenhouse-gas emissions.
Additionally, as food and drink are quickly consumed and release their carbon content back into the atmosphere through the natural carbon cycle, they only provide short-term carbon storage.
Conclusion
If you are not enlightened? I am and I tell you that if products like this go into mass production in various countries with other competitors coming into the market, we would certainly make Earth sustainable again.
we need to take action now so, we and the generations to come will benefit. That’s sustainability!
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A passion-driven environmentalist by heart. Lead content writer at EnvironmentGo.
I strive to educate the public about the environment and its problems.
It has always been about nature, we ought to protect not destroy.