#low-carbon-materials

#low-carbon-materials

For many years, bamboo has been mostly known as the favourite food of giant pandas, but a group of engineers say it's time we took it seriously as a building material, too. This week the Institution of Structural Engineers called for architects to be bamboo-ready as they published a manual for designing permanent buildings made of the material, in an effort to encourage low-carbon construction and position bamboo as a proper alternative to steel and concrete.

It was widely used in ancient China, but appears globally throughout history, including in the U.S. After the industrial revolution, and the innovations of steel, concrete, glass, and mass-produced bricks, the traditional method fell out of favor. Now, however, an increasing number of architects are looking to the material as a sustainable, place-rooted way to build amid a climate crisis that calls for dramatically reduced carbon emissions.

VolkerRail combined green steel rail, low-carbon concrete, recycled ballast and renewable biofueled trains during recent engineering work to reduce the carbon intensity of the work. Steel rails, concrete sleepers, and ballast, all traditionally produced through carbon-intensive processes, account for a significant share of the overall carbon footprint in track renewals, as much as 90%. The project used green steel rail manufactured in an electric arc furnace, achieving around 60% lower carbon intensity than traditional blast-furnace steel.