"In short, decarbonization and CCU are not just compatible. They’re complimentary. And we need all the tools we can get to meet the scale and urgency of the challenge we face."

This newsletter issue features an interview with CarbonCure's Vice President of Customer Success, Brad Vickers, who joined the company more than a decade ago, developing, operationalizing and scaling CarbonCure’s technologies in prior roles that included Field Engineer, Director of Engineering and Head of Product. His tenure included the assembly and commissioning of CarbonCure’s earliest commercial systems across North America and Asia, and the launch of its carbon credit program in 2021.

CarbonCure Technologies is a fast-growing carbon utilization company deploying easy-to-adopt solutions that enable concrete producers to use captured CO₂ to produce reliable, lower carbon concrete mixes.

What is CarbonCure’s origin story?

CarbonCure was founded in 2012 in Halifax, Canada, where the company’s headquarters remain today. Our founder Robert Niven had recently graduated with a Masters in Engineering from McGill University, where he studied the benefits of introducing CO₂ to fresh concrete. Knowing that CO₂ can be chemically converted to a mineral within concrete, Rob and an initial group of employees began developing early iterations of our solution. Since 2012, CarbonCure has commercialized scalable technologies that reduce carbon emissions while providing economic advantages to its concrete producer partners in more than two dozen countries.

Can you describe what CarbonCure does in a very simple way?

CarbonCure pioneered the mineralization of captured carbon dioxide in concrete by injecting it during the mixing process. Immediately upon injection, the carbon dioxide (CO₂) chemically converts into a mineral and gets permanently embedded in the concrete. The mineralized CO₂ also enables concrete producers to adjust the amount of cement content in their mixes while maintaining the concrete’s strength with no meaningful impact on the concrete’s pH or performance. 

This is a win-win solution as CarbonCure’s technologies permanently lock away the CO₂ that has been captured while also reducing the amount of (carbon-intensive) cement needed in concrete production.

What is the significance of what you do? What impact are you having?

The world’s building stock is expected to double by 2060. That’s like building another New York City every month and most of that will be concrete — the world’s most used building material. Concrete also has a hefty carbon footprint: Its key ingredient, cement, generates an estimated 7% of the world’s CO₂ emissions. That’s three times more than global aviation.

It seems CarbonCure has been in the news a lot in the past few years. Is there one accomplishment that stands out in your mind?

We’d point to our half million metric tons milestone last year. (CarbonCure exceeded 500,000 metric tons of carbon savings to date.) We’re now approaching 600,000 metric tons of carbon savings. These can be tracked, in real-time, on our homepage at www.carboncure.com. 

Our mission is to empower cement and concrete producers with technologies and strategies to achieve the industry's net-zero commitment by 2050. 

The complete decarbonization of concrete manufacturing will require all hands on deck and all the tools in our toolbox, including CarbonCure. So we are focused on the continued evolution of our solution and collaboration with other mission-aligned partners from industry and across the private sector, academia, government and civil society. This includes end users of our concrete — across commercial, residential and infrastructure projects — and carbon credit buyers, with that revenue helping to incentivize industry adoption and accelerate our global scale.

Your process (utilizing CO₂ emissions as a resource to both reduce carbon emissions and also generate value) seems like a no-brainer. Why aren’t more people doing this? 

The construction industry is very risk averse, and for good reason. When engineers, contractors or concrete suppliers contribute to a project, their reputations, and perhaps their businesses or careers, are on the line. Safety is and always should be a top consideration. In an industry that literally goes back centuries, widespread trust in new solutions takes time to build.

That’s why there is so much power in federal, state and even municipal government procurement of greener building materials and corporate purchases of carbon credits or insets tied to lower carbon concrete. Not only does this new revenue create a financial incentive for our producer partners to embrace our innovation, it sends an important market signal to the broader concrete industry that demand for sustainability is a near-term and long-term opportunity across the public and private sectors.

Specifically, innovation and efforts to make concrete more sustainable are hindered by regulatory requirements for prescriptive concrete specifications. The outdated practice of using prescriptive specifications originated decades ago when concrete production quality control standards were not as robust as they are today. 

Switching to performance-based standards for concrete procurement empowers concrete producers to provide the best products that meet the required performance requirements — such as strength, durability, workability — compliant with the engineering needs of the particular application of the concrete. It also creates the opportunity for producers to introduce new innovations and increase carbon-savings during concrete manufacturing.

How would you respond to those who say that resources should be spent on reducing emissions rather than on carbon capture and utilization (CCU)? Or those that say CCU is an excuse to avoid making impactful changes?

At CarbonCure, we fully agree that reducing emissions is critical — and it's something the world must pursue with urgency. But we also recognize that achieving our global climate goals requires a both-and approach, not an either-or. Carbon utilization is not a substitute for emission reductions. In the case of cement and concrete manufacturing, it's a necessary component.

The reality is that some industrial processes — like cement production — are inherently carbon-intensive and extremely difficult to decarbonize. CCU provides a practical, scalable way to address these hard-to-abate emissions today, while also creating economic value and building momentum for broader decarbonization.

CCU technologies like ours at CarbonCure are accelerating change. By turning captured CO₂ into a valuable input — permanently mineralized in concrete — we actually enable reductions. The mineralized CO₂ maintains the compressive strength of the concrete materials, enabling producers to safely reduce the amount of carbon-intensive cement in each truckload. It’s a climate win-win. 

In short, decarbonization and CCU are not just compatible. They’re complimentary. And we need all the tools we can get to meet the scale and urgency of the challenge we face.



What is a little known fun fact about CarbonCure?

While some notable developments get a lot of attention, CarbonCure is not just used in high profile projects like Amazon's HQ2 near Washington, D.C. If you live near one of the hundreds of concrete plants across North America or around the world that use CarbonCure's technologies, you've probably seen, walked or driven on CarbonCure concrete without even realizing it. To date, our network of concrete producer partners has delivered more than 71 million cubic yards of lower carbon concrete to thousands of projects of all scopes and sizes: runways, driveways, sidewalks, schools, homes and high rises. That’s enough CarbonCure concrete to fill the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium 18.5 times.

News in a Nutshell

Colorado Energy Office Issues A Carbon Management Roadmap For The State

Microsoft inks massive carbon removal deal powered by a paper mill

STAX Engineering and Seabound Successfully Demonstrate First-Of-Its-Kind Integrated Emissions and Carbon Capture Solution

Carbon to Value Initiative: Year 4 Final Showcase now available on demand

Imminent Events

International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilization (ICCDU)

June 23-27, 2025

Under the theme " CO₂ for a Circular Economy", ICCDU 2025 will provide a vital platform for exchanging knowledge, innovative approaches, and driving pioneering solutions and sustainable technologies to accelerate the drive towards an effective circular carbon economy.

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