Steel in a scrapyard to be recycled into new steel. | Photo by Roger Ball/Worldsteel via Getty Images
The Biden administration announced $160 million in grants to projects meant to measure the climate impact of new-fangled construction materials. The grants cover a spectrum of potential alternatives from hemp-based products to bamboo, recycled steel, and more.
Scientists and startups have proposed all sorts of new ways to cut down carbon dioxide emissions from building materials that have become a big climate problem. But it’s hard to suss out how effective proposed solutions are without metrics in place to compare products. There’s also potential for greenwashing, when companies make sustainability claims that they can’t back up with evidence.
