Session Description

Concrete has a massive carbon footprint, if it were a country it would be the third largest emitting nation after China and the USA. What if we as a society decided to turn the world’s most used human-made material from the largest source of carbon emissions in the construction industry into a carbon sink by incorporating biogenic carbon within it? The construction industry is desperate to decarbonize while hopelessly dependent on high emissions industrial concrete. Flipping the script on this conundrum is to envision a world which capitalizes on the dramatic volumes of concrete poured every day as an opportunity for carbon sequestration and asks a simple question: Can the built environment be transformed into place for massive storage of carbon?

About Your Speaker

John Mead (M.B.A.) is an entrepreneur with 19 years leading companies focused on the sustainable construction space. With bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering for Oregon State University, he founded the award-winning green building company Cellar Ridge Construction.

He is currently CEO of Solid Carbon an Oregon company specializing in the commercialization of biochar-based admixtures and pozzolans into the ready mixed concrete industry. Solid Carbon’s mission is to provide climate smart concrete solutions to sequester carbon in the built environment. When not working on climate friendly construction businesses he can be found coaching high school rugby and volunteering on the local historic landmarks committee.