Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is testing a new concrete mix designed to lower embodied carbon by over half compared to traditional concrete mixes. Data Center Frontier reported that the company aims to further advance sustainable, green building materials for data center construction.
Microsoft is testing the new mix at its Quincy, WA, hyperscale campus. The ingredients, including a limestone derived from microalgae and other additives supplied by Minus Materials, lower the overall embodied carbon. Additional recipes being tested include “biogenic limestone, one using fly ash and slag activated with alkaline soda ash, and one combining both the alkali-activated cement and biogenic limestone.”
Data Center Frontier reported that Microsoft, along with Google, Amazon Web Services, Meta, and 70-plus others, are on the path to decarbonization and industry net zero. The joint effort, part of the iMasons Climate Accord initiative, highlights findings that “concrete, steel, and aluminum are responsible for 23 percent of total global carbon emissions, while concrete alone makes up 11 percent of total global emissions.”
The group calls on the data center industry to:
- Deliver a technology roadmap to decarbonize concrete.
- Set standard baselines to measure against.
- Drive transparency through Environmental Product Declarations.
- Create a consistent method to calculate emissions in concrete.
Global concrete production totals 32 billion tons annually and is a complex mixture of many elements. It requires massive kilns, which demand enormous energy to operate. Production also emits high levels of CO2. According to a recent report, “concrete production creates more annual carbon emissions than all the European Union’s carbon emissions combined.”
Reader Interactions