Cementing Carbon

An interview with John Mead. This is a crossover episode with the Spring Street Passive House education and advocacy series. Welcome to a pivotal conversation on the future of our built world. The concrete industry, indispensable for modern infrastructure, is facing an urgent mandate: reconcile its foundational role (pun) with its role as a source of environmental pollution. The scale of the emissions are staggering - if global concrete manufacturing were a country it would be the 3rd largest emitter, behind only China and the US (!). The good news is that with this a motivation the global concrete industry is now rethinking its entire lifecycle. In this episode, host Kristof sits down with John Mead, one of the founders of Solid Carbon to talk about efforts to transform concrete from a carbon emitter into a "net carbon sink. By converting waste carbon materials, wood being one, into a mass of solid carbon through pyrolysis and then using this carbon sink in a durable material through concrete we are making a huge impact in an industry that needs to make some powerful shifts in the years ahead. John Mead John Mead is an entrepreneur with 20 years leading companies focused on sustainable construction. He has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University, and an MBA from George Fox University. He is CEO of Solid Carbon Inc., an Oregon company specializing in the commercialization of biochar-based ingredients for the ready mixed concrete industry. Solid Carbon's mission is to transform the concrete industry into a climate solution with climate smart concrete solutions to sequester carbon in the built environment. When not working on climate-friendly construction businesses he can be found coaching high school rugby, camping in the Cascades, gardening and admiring historic and modern architecture. Solid Carbon LinkedIn Team Hosted by Kristof Irwin Edited by Nico Mignardi Produced by M. Walker

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Cementing Carbon is an episode from The Building Science Podcast by Miguel Walker.

This episode is 1:01:15 long.

This episode was published on Oct 31, 2025.

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