Low-carbon construction materials encompass a broad class of building products engineered to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, resource consumption, and environmental impact across their life cycle. Approaches include alternative binders such as geopolymers and low-clinker cements, incorporation of recycled aggregates and industrial by-products, and development of bio-based and engineered living materials that can self-heal or sequester carbon. These materials are applied in concrete, masonry, pavements, insulation, and structural components, often integrating circular economy principles and digital design or AI tools for performance optimization.
Engineering
As cities grow denser and construction labor becomes harder to secure, the sector is under pressure to deliver projects faster, more efficiently and with fewer workers on site. In the past decade, 3D concrete printing (3DCP) ...
Feb 9, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
Swinburne researchers have turned old, unwanted mattresses into safe and sustainable building insulation materials using fungi. The team grew a common fungus together with shredded mattress foam to create a new material that ...
Feb 4, 2026
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Engineering
The plastic bottle you just tossed in the recycling bin could provide structural support for your future house. MIT engineers are using recycled plastic to 3D print construction-grade beams, trusses, and other structural ...
Feb 3, 2026
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Engineering
Seating furniture is frequently not designed for long-term use or simple assembly and disassembly and has a tendency to break after just one move. This does not apply to the benches, chairs, and stools that were created as ...
Feb 2, 2026
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Engineering
University of Texas at Dallas researchers and their collaborators have developed and patented a wood-based material that can store and discharge heat to help make building temperatures more comfortable without using electricity. ...
Feb 2, 2026
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Engineering
The world may be running out of sand suitable for concrete. Researchers are therefore testing a possible solution for using desert sand as a material. Ren Wei and several researchers at NTNU and the University of Tokyo have ...
Jan 29, 2026
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Engineering
Since it was invented in the 1980s, 3D printing has moved from the laboratory to the factory, the home and even outer space.
Jan 29, 2026
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Engineering
Researchers have created a self-healing composite that is tougher than materials currently used in aircraft wings, turbine blades and other applications—and can repair itself more than 1,000 times. The researchers estimate ...
Jan 14, 2026
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Energy & Green Tech
Solar power has a dark side: panels are still built to be thrown away, and we risk creating a mountain of waste that locks away valuable minerals.
Jan 13, 2026
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Engineering
Is it possible to recover plastic recyclates from previously unused waste streams in order to produce high-quality fibers and films? How can bio-based polymer fibers be manufactured so as to allow adjustable biodegradability? ...
Jan 5, 2026
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