ByAlyssa Hassett
July 10, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL
Madison Savilow, director of corporate and external affairs at Carbon Upcycling. - Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal
Chances are, you’re surrounded by concrete right now. Whether you’re at home, at work, or stuck in traffic, one thing’s almost certain: you’re sitting on, in, or beside concrete.
What many don’t realize? The cost of our society’s firm foundation.
Concrete production is responsible for over 8% of global carbon emissions, and Carbon Upcycling is looking to change that by using carbon emissions and industrial waste in cement production.
“If you are going to store CO₂ in anything, why not the second most used substance on Earth?” says Madison Savilow, director of corporate and external affairs at Carbon Upcycling.
In conversation with Digital Journal at Inventures 2025, Savilow discussed how the cement industry needs an upgrade and how the notoriously carbon-producing industry can go green.
[Watch the interview in full below]
Madison Savilow, director of corporate and external affairs at Carbon Upcycling. - Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal
Chances are, you’re surrounded by concrete right now. Whether you’re at home, at work, or stuck in traffic, one thing’s almost certain: you’re sitting on, in, or beside concrete.
What many don’t realize? The cost of our society’s firm foundation.
Concrete production is responsible for over 8% of global carbon emissions, and Carbon Upcycling is looking to change that by using carbon emissions and industrial waste in cement production.
“If you are going to store CO₂ in anything, why not the second most used substance on Earth?” says Madison Savilow, director of corporate and external affairs at Carbon Upcycling.
In conversation with Digital Journal at Inventures 2025, Savilow discussed how the cement industry needs an upgrade and how the notoriously carbon-producing industry can go green.
[Watch the interview in full below]
Madison Savilow, director of corporate and external affairs at Carbon Upcycling. – Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital JournalTime for change
With a passion rooted in architecture, Savilow sees carbon capture as a blueprint for building a more sustainable world.
“So much of the built environment really structures society,” she says. “It becomes the fabric of society.”
It was this vision that led her to explore how industrial decarbonization could have a practical impact.
“I was very passionate about this industrial decarbonization route and being able to transfer that over to something that now has value and can really start to build the built environment of the future.”
Carbon Upcycling aims to do just that, turning carbon emissions and industrial waste byproducts into usable ingredients for low-carbon cement.
“Essentially, what we did is we said, look, we’ll take the ‘out of spec’ or waste versions of these conventional materials, and we’ll upcycle them so you can use them.”
The company lowers emissions through mineralization, a process where CO₂ bonds with upcycled industrial by-products, storing carbon permanently within the cement.
“We use a lot of industrial byproducts and waste materials to sequester and store CO₂, and then through our process, we’re able to create CO₂-enhanced cement replacement for the concrete sector,” says Savilow.
This process could be the start of a major change for the global concrete industry, as concrete and cement production is one of the biggest polluters of carbon emissions in the world, with an estimated 2.4 billion metric tons emitted annually.
Shaking up the recipe
To tackle emissions and waste, Carbon Upcycling had to reinvent a centuries-old recipe.
Society has relied on concrete as a foundation for infrastructure since around 6500 B.C., and demand is only growing.
“The concrete mix hasn’t changed since the Colosseum was built,” says Savilow.
For Savilow and Carbon Upcycling, this presented a challenge when trying to break into the conservative industry. The company found its product–market fit in concrete after participating in the LafargeHolcim accelerator in 2018.
Madison Savilow, director of corporate and external affairs at Carbon Upcycling. – Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal
“That started to build trust,” she says. “And the more data that we showed to them, the more trials we were able to do in the field, really allowed us to demonstrate and start to scale the technology.”
A key factor in their success was the growing demand for cement in an industry faced with a dying supply of traditional materials.
After testing 45 combinations, the team landed on three materials already accepted in the concrete industry, a move that helped companies take a chance on their novel product.
Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) are an important part of cement production, but common SCMs like fly ash (a by-product from coal power plants) are becoming harder to source as the world moves away from coal.
Carbon Upcycling addresses this problem by turning industrial waste (materials that would otherwise go to landfill) into low-carbon SCMs. It’s a more environmentally friendly approach to cement production and a direct response to one of the industry’s biggest problems.
“So what we can offer is a localized source of these SCMs, and we can start to bring that material back into the fold, also through a decarbonization lens, and with CO₂ attached to it.”
The future of carbon capture?
As global demand for cement rises, concerns over emissions and dwindling traditional materials are converging, setting the stage for a greener shift across the industry.
Carbon Upcycling is making rapid progress, reporting 3,000 tonnes of industrial solid waste being upcycled and deployed while reducing 514 tonnes of CO₂ emissions as of 2025.
Carbon Upcycling is operating locally in Calgary and at the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre, while also expanding operations across Canada and internationally, working on projects in the United States and Europe.
When deciding where to start a new project, Carbon Upcycling looks for specific conditions in the area that can drive the project’s success.
“The biggest driver is you sort of look for places where the materials are running out,” says Savilow.
That might mean landfills full of fly ash or steel plants that have switched to electric and suddenly have no use for their byproducts. In both cases, Carbon Upcycling steps in with a solution that diverts waste and locks in carbon.
“I’m just really excited to work on full-scale projects that are going to start to remediate some of the waste that is underutilized and start to capture CO₂ that otherwise would end up in the atmosphere.”
Savilow and Carbon Upcycling’s work is part of a broader shift in how industries approach emissions — not just reducing them, but redesigning entire systems to reuse what was once discarded. It’s a reminder that helping the environment doesn’t have to mean creating new products, but reimagining waste altogether.
“That started to build trust,” she says. “And the more data that we showed to them, the more trials we were able to do in the field, really allowed us to demonstrate and start to scale the technology.”
A key factor in their success was the growing demand for cement in an industry faced with a dying supply of traditional materials.
After testing 45 combinations, the team landed on three materials already accepted in the concrete industry, a move that helped companies take a chance on their novel product.
Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) are an important part of cement production, but common SCMs like fly ash (a by-product from coal power plants) are becoming harder to source as the world moves away from coal.
Carbon Upcycling addresses this problem by turning industrial waste (materials that would otherwise go to landfill) into low-carbon SCMs. It’s a more environmentally friendly approach to cement production and a direct response to one of the industry’s biggest problems.
“So what we can offer is a localized source of these SCMs, and we can start to bring that material back into the fold, also through a decarbonization lens, and with CO₂ attached to it.”
The future of carbon capture?
As global demand for cement rises, concerns over emissions and dwindling traditional materials are converging, setting the stage for a greener shift across the industry.
Carbon Upcycling is making rapid progress, reporting 3,000 tonnes of industrial solid waste being upcycled and deployed while reducing 514 tonnes of CO₂ emissions as of 2025.
Carbon Upcycling is operating locally in Calgary and at the Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre, while also expanding operations across Canada and internationally, working on projects in the United States and Europe.
When deciding where to start a new project, Carbon Upcycling looks for specific conditions in the area that can drive the project’s success.
“The biggest driver is you sort of look for places where the materials are running out,” says Savilow.
That might mean landfills full of fly ash or steel plants that have switched to electric and suddenly have no use for their byproducts. In both cases, Carbon Upcycling steps in with a solution that diverts waste and locks in carbon.
“I’m just really excited to work on full-scale projects that are going to start to remediate some of the waste that is underutilized and start to capture CO₂ that otherwise would end up in the atmosphere.”
Savilow and Carbon Upcycling’s work is part of a broader shift in how industries approach emissions — not just reducing them, but redesigning entire systems to reuse what was once discarded. It’s a reminder that helping the environment doesn’t have to mean creating new products, but reimagining waste altogether.
Watch the interview:
Written ByAlyssa Hassett
Alyssa Hassett is a journalist and editor based in Calgary. She is a recent graduate of Mount Royal University and enjoys reporting on a variety of topics, including science and politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment