Concrete creates carbon - other materials could store it.
Data centers and other buildings could be made from materials which store carbon, instead of using carbon-emitting concrete according to research sponsored by Microsoft.
Concrete contributes eight percent of the world’s CO2 emissions, making it a worse polluter than the airline industry. But buildings could replace a lot of their concrete with natural materials which store carbon, including mushrooms, algae hemp, thatch, and plain earth, according to a research document sponsored by Microsoft and produced by the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) at the University of Washington.