Laying the foundation for the future of carbon-zero buildings

Wil Srubar, associate professor in Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and CU Boulder’s Materials Science and Engineering Program, runs the Living Materials Laboratory at CU Boulder, where they research and create responsive, biomimetic, and/or living materials which can address pressing environmental issues such as climate change. Srubar’s lab and colleagues with the Algal Resources Collection at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNC-W) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have been rewarded for their innovative work with a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). The research team was recently selected by the HESTIA program (Harnessing Emissions into Structures Taking Inputs from the Atmosphere) to develop and scale up the manufacture of biogenic limestone-based cement and help build a zero-carbon emissions future.