About 60 percent of carbon emissions from the cement industry come from decarbonizing limestone, which is a highly energy-intensive process. Changing the composition of cement using fly ash, volcanic ash, certain clays, ground bottle glass, and other industrial waste products could help reduce the CO2 emission of cement dramatically. Project Drawdown found that if 9% of cement produced between 2020 and 2050 is a blend of Portland cement and fly ash, we could avoid 6.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Rise has previously written about sustainable alternatives to cement that radically reduce CO2 emissions while offering similar strength and durability.

Bottom line

There are many easy things that homeowners can do to reduce their overall footprint. Reducing food waste, adopting a plant-rich diet, opting for solar panels, driving electric vehicles, and finding alternatives to cement are things that every homeowner can do to reduce their household footprint. The most beautiful part of Project Drawdown’s analysis is, as so eloquently articulated by Paul Hawken (Penguin Books [2017], page xi), “Almost all of the solutions compiled and analyzed here lead to regenerative economic outcomes that create security, produce jobs, improve health, save money, facilitate mobility, eliminate hunger, prevent pollution, restore soil, clean rivers, and more.” With that endorsement, what's not to love?

* Editor's Note: We use methane's warming potential over 20 years (GWP20), which is 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2). Using the conventional GWP100 (over 100 years) of 34 dramatically underestimates methane's impact. We believe policymakers should switch to GWP20 or GWP10—which shows that methane is 130 times more powerful. For more information, see this article in Scientific American.