A company founded by three scientists is developing materials which can reduce the carbon footprint of the construction industry. Co-founder, Dr Natasha Boulding, explains how the new materials will help reduce carbon emissions from construction.

Can you tell us how you came to found Low Carbon Materials here in the North East?

The three founders of Low Carbon Materials, Dr Phil Buckley, Scott Bush and I, all come from different corners of the UK and we met while studying our PhDs in materials science at Durham. The business has been going since late 2019 and was the first student spin-out from Durham University.

What prompted you to want to found a business of your own?

We each spent time working in larger companies and became increasingly frustrated with the speed of innovation. We were all aligned with our passion to create an urgent positive impact for the climate, so we thought, is there something we can do ourselves, using the decades of materials science experience we have between us?

Our initial idea, which is now our flagship product, OSTO, gained a lot of interest from within the construction industry, awards and investment, and from this the company was established and continues to grow. We’re diversifying our product portfolio with a focus on scaling the products we develop.

And what kind of materials are you developing? 

We started by looking at what the most polluting materials used globally are and we found that concrete is one of them. It’s a major contributor to carbon emissions across the world and, after water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth, producing 8% of the planet's CO2.

This led us to develop our first product, OSTO, which is a carbon-negative aggregate for concrete and we’re now launching a second product which is a carbon-negative aggregate for asphalt.

We’re working with regional, national and international concrete and asphalt companies to incorporate our products into their processes and one of the very first places it has been used is in our own unit in Seaham, where the inner walls are built from it.

How exactly does OSTO reduce carbon emissions?

It works in three main ways: firstly, by avoidance of emissions. It’s made from waste materials which would otherwise be incinerated – which is one of the dirtiest ways we generate energy. We divert this waste, preventing vast amounts of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. 

Secondly is mineralisation. CO2 is absorbed and stored permanently in the aggregate, where a chemical reaction turns the carbon into rock. We’re now working with other companies to take their waste CO2 and inject it into our aggregate, where it’s stored forever.

Thirdly, it replaces traditional carbon-intensive materials that would otherwise be used in concrete.

What needs to change in construction if we’re to reach net zero goals?

In my opinion, there’s a common misconception that we don’t have innovation. We absolutely do have the innovation we need to get to net zero but what we don’t have is the finance or incentives for people to adopt green technologies, which are often more expensive – at least initially. Having this finance in place will, in turn, help businesses like ours to scale more quickly.

We were shortlisted for the Earthshot Prize last year, which is the most prestigious environmental award in the world and it had an incredible impact. As well as the network of global leaders it introduces you to, Earthshot is working on tackling the challenge of green finance and helping businesses to scale up more quickly in this decisive decade.

What advice would you give to North East businesses that want to reduce their carbon emissions?

Measure everything. You need to know your baseline in order to improve, so measure your carbon footprint to give you a place to start from.

Sign up for an anti-greenwashing policy or create one of your own. We work with the Anti-Greenwashing Charter to make sure that all our communication is correct.

And, if you’re a company that has the resources, try new products and new technologies. Things are never going to change unless someone is the first to try new things and by doing so you’ll help new products like ours scale up and be more readily available.

Low Carbon Materials is just one of hundreds of organisations helping the North East reach its net zero targets and make a difference on a global scale.

Do you have a net zero story to share? Get in touch with us at [email protected].

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