THE DOGRUN

Typical cement is responsible for approximately 5% of man-made carbon dioxide; the emissions are caused by the processing of limestone and raw materials and the burning of fossil fuels. Novacem's carbon-negative cement replaces calcium carbonates used in typical cement formulation with magnesium silicates and uses a lower-temperature production process that runs on biomass fuels. Nocacem associate engineer Daniel Bowden says that while the cement is still in development, they are already achieving strengths of up to 80 Mpa. Dent says the cement was the clear winner. "If implemented, the material would take care of most of construction's attempts at carbon reductions in one fell swoop." Bowden says that a commercial rollout is currently planned for 2014-2015. "It's kind of pretty," says our own Jennifer Young. "I wish I could use this in some jewelry."