Operational Carbon is no Longer the Whole Story

Foundation being placed at the Spring Street Passive House for Diane and Kristof Irwin.

For decades, the Passive House community has led the charge on energy efficiency: tight envelopes, smart ventilation, and low energy demand. But as projects get better and better at minimizing operational energy, another question is coming into sharper focus:

👉 What about the carbon embedded in the materials themselves?

Organizations like the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) have shown that in low-energy buildings, embodied carbon…the emissions from materials and construction can rival or even surpass operational carbon over a building's lifecycle.

Last week, we took a big step toward addressing that challenge.

We partnered with Kristof Irwin (of the Building Science Podcast) on his personal family home in White Salmon, WA a high-performance build that takes embodied carbon seriously.

The concrete was batched by Gorge Crete (shoutout to Bob Bershears) in Dallesport, WA and placed beautifully by Brent Foster’s crew at Green Thumb Projects.

What made this pour different? It featured our latest material innovation: BioLOCK® 2.0 a carbon-sequestering additive that gives the mix its distinctive dark color and a climate-positive footprint.

🔒 BioLOCK® 2.0 stores biogenic carbon that would otherwise be released as CO₂ or methane. 🏗️ It integrates into the structure—permanently locking away carbon for generations. 📉 It helps projects meet embodied carbon thresholds and pushes the GWP of concrete in the right direction.

We're proud to be part of a growing shift in the sustainable building movement one that sees structure, skin, and systems as all part of the climate solution.

Our lines are open, join us in building carbon smart concrete in your next project.

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