Mineral Carbonation International (MCi) is pleased to announce its founding membership with Materials & Embodied Carbon Leaders’ Alliance, a joint initiative led by WWF, Presync, Climate-KIC Australia and funded by NSW Government.
MCi founder and Chief Executive Officer Marcus Dawe said MCi’s membership in MECLA was crucial to advancing their shared objectives.
'MECLA aims to reduce the embodied carbon in the building and construction industry to transform the sector to reach net-zero emissions. MCi aims to lock away one billion tonnes of industrial emissions into useable products by 2040.'
'We’re proud to have joined MECLA to support their important mission. We need industry advocacy to ensure governments support the transition to a net zero construction industry by updating materials and building standards to reflect advances in technology.'
Marcus Dawe, MCi CEO
MCi’s technology takes CO2 from industrial operations and mixes it with feedstock, such as mining tailings or natural quarried rock, and by speeding up the Earth’s natural carbonation process creates new products such as calcium and magnesium carbonates and silicas.
Low carbon embodied materials have locked away the carbon and can be used in building products, creating negative emissions plasterboard and low carbon concretes for ready mix and pre-cast high performance construction products.
As an example, one tonne of concrete made with just some of MCi's substituted material has shown to save 300kg of CO2 from going into the atmosphere, and this is only the beginning of the applications. MCi now works further with their cement customers to get as close to carbon neutral as possible.
Uptake of carbon products, such as those created by MCi, could result in low-carbon, carbon-neutral or negative carbon buildings.
'Right now, the Australian building material standards are antiquated and not reflective of new, low-carbon products which have demonstrative improvements in safety andreliability on existing products.'
- Marcus Dawe, MCi CEO
MCi will work with MECLA partners to advocate for these changes, and many other important initiatives looking towards 2050.