(Credit: Pixabay)Compass Datacenters announced today its data centers will be built with concrete using CarbonCure technology. Developed by Nova Scotia-based CarbonCure Technologies, the procedure injects re-captured industrial CO2 into the concrete manufacturing process, dramatically reducing the volume of cement required in the mixing of concrete while also permanently removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Compass Datacenters estimates using CarbonCure will reduce its CO2 footprint by an average of 1,800 tons per campus. With this new technology, Compass is hoping to help the data center industry reduce its environmental impact with a “holistic lens.”
CarbonCure Technologies says that cement is a major component of concrete and its production accounts for 7% of global CO2 generated, making it one of the largest contributors to carbon from the built environment. CarbonCure is pursuing a mission alongside many of the world's concrete producers to eliminate 500 million tons of CO2 emissions from concrete production annually.
The effort to reduce CO2 emissions in all aspects of industry has become a hot topic over the last several years. And while the covid-19 pandemic has at least one silver lining of less emissions being released into the atmosphere, governing bodies don't see the respite lasting long. Just last month, the UN’s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), called the recent 5.5 to 5.7% decrease in carbon dioxide due to the pandemic “short-term good news.”
“Once the global economy begins to recover from the new coronavirus, WMO expects emissions to return to normal,” according to the UN. The organization’s secretary general, Petteri Taalas, cautioned that there might even be an uptick in emissions post-pandemic because some industries were halted.
A United Nations report published recently found that carbon dioxide levels were 18% higher from 2015 to 2019 than the previous five years.
