Overview 

The buildings and construction sector accounts for approximately 37% of global carbon emissions (UNEP). According to the UN Environmental Programme, much of this impact is derived from the operational aspects of buildings including heating, cooling, and lighting. However, building materials and their production also play a major role. Construction materials include cement, steel, and aluminum. Timber and wooden materials play a major role as well. According to Plantd co-Founder Josh Dorfman, “The global economy produces and transports 4.1 gigatons of concrete, 1.9 gigatons of steel, and 0.8 gigatons of timber products every year.”

The UK Green Building Council highlights that timber harvesting (logging) can be conducted with varying degrees of sustainable forest management, “from clear-cutting to regenerative forestry.” While the timber industry has been focusing on more sustainable practices, the process often leads to soil erosion, habitat loss, negative impacts on the water cycle, and potential harm to indigenous communities. Further, trees can take several years to grow and harvest.

What is Plantd?

Plantd, a startup dedicated to creating sustainable construction materials, seeks to solve this issue. The company has developed its own material: a grass species similar to bamboo and sugarcane with high fiber strength embedded into the plant itself during growth. The plant can grow on large plots of land, is ready for harvesting two to three times per year the year after it is planted, and is not subject to wildfire in the way that forests are. When the plant is harvested, the fiber can be extracted and reoriented to create a wood-like product according to different specifications with an electric press invented by Plantd. It is fully certified as a durable construction material, meeting both strength and moisture requirements. According to Plantd CEO Nathan Silvernail, “ if you take a timber-based material and you fully submerge it in water to the point where it can no longer take on any more water and you dry it out and you strength test it, it loses 70% of its strength. Our material under the same exact conditions and exposure loses only 1% of its strength.” Ultimately, with the new natural material and more efficient press, Plantd hopes to develop construction materials that are far more cost-effective and scalable. 

Potential Drawbacks

In order to overcome potential dubious consumers and encourage widespread adoption of their product, Mr. Silvernail is optimistic that the company will attract buyers with a lower price point for the product. According to Mr. Silvernail, “ Our bottom line is not counted in dollars. It's counted in tons of CO2 captured. I tell all of our investors that. So we are not sitting here trying to just make the biggest margins we can. We're trying to make an impact. And again, the only way that I'm gonna do that is through price and volume.” 

Mr. Silvernail also hopes that the government can subsidize costs for buyers to buy their carbon-negative product, allowing it to penetrate the longstanding foothold of the traditional timber industry over construction. However, many government programs aimed toward assisting sustainable companies are being cut, presenting a potential challenge for Plantd to build its market and appeal to consumers. Further, once Plantd is able to encourage demand for their product, their biggest challenge is scaling to meet demand. While they are sold out at the moment, the company is working to optimize their build processes to create enough panels to eventually sell in stores for home builders. 

About our guest

Entrepreneur and engineer Nathan Silvernail is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Plantd Materials. While working at SpaceX, he led the team that built life support systems for astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and made history by building the first payload fairing recovered from space and reused on a later mission. In addition to his work at SpaceX, Nathan founded a company that designed, built, and flew reduced gravity experiments onboard NASA's zero gravity simulation aircraft. He has received recognition for his work in the industry, including the Emerging Space Leaders Grant and the First Suborbital Research Flight with Virgin Galactic.

Resources

• Building Materials And The Climate: Constructing A New Future, UN Environmental Programme
• Plantd Raises $10M, Pioneering Carbon-Negative Building Materials, Forbes
• Embodied Ecological Impacts: Timber, UK Green Building Council

Further Reading

• Plantd Materials
• Plantd Raises $22M to Scale Carbon-Negative Materials and Transform Waste Stream Into New Market Growth

For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/plantd-with-nathan-silvernail/.