What is climate-positive design?

Climate positive design is the understanding of how products built into systems or operations in the exterior built environment can contribute to net-zero or carbon negative projects. We can't look at a singular embodied carbon value of a product to make the best choices - it is essential to look at the entire system to reduce emissions and sequester carbon. The Climate Positive Design Challenge initiated in 2019 advocates and educates this concept.

How do the materials used in the design of outdoor spaces impact our environment?

 

Materials chosen and executed in systems allow designers to create sites that will sequester carbon, reduce heat island effect, improve resilience, water quality, biodiversity and human health, physically, and mentally. Specific types of soils, plantings, high SRI materials, permeable systems, recycled materials, local materials, and more contribute to a positive design that can take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and reduce the burden to additional systems.

How do concrete pavers compare to other building materials in terms of sustainability?

If you are comparing pavers to other hardscaping products based on embodied carbon values, some are higher and some are lower, but there isn't a lot of information for comparison in the market yet. A practical example would be to compare the use of pavers to poured-in-place concrete. In certain applications you can use a much thinner paver which will reduce the concrete mass as much as 60%. When you further consider cement content would be greater proportionally in pavers, for the required higher compressive strength, the resulting savings of embodied carbon could be about 25%. That is significant, and we haven't yet looked at the entire system.

What strategies can designers implement to maximize the sustainability of concrete paver installations?

Number one, install permeable paver systems. Water flows through the joints and the system collects water on site. It has the ability to eliminate flooding and reduce infrastructure requirements while diverting water from combined sewer systems that potentially pollute local waterways. Additionally, it will reduce heat island effect, filter contaminants and pollutants and ultimately sequester carbon. When pavers are combined in this system the greenhouse gas emissions are 78-95 percent lower than conventional drainage systems.

What is Unilock doing to show their commitment to sustainability?

In the 1990's we started to replace some of the cement content with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and today we can replace up to 55%. We have created Health Product Declarations for our products, as well as Environmental Product Declarations and are working to assess our Carbon Footprint. In the meantime, we recycle most on-site concrete waste, we have green electricity and EV forklifts at some facilities, we treat and recycle water used in manufacturing at many production plants and we have installed a large solar panel test project at our Rittman, Ohio facility. We continue to take on more projects and initiatives as we move forward with our carbon reduction journey.