The casting process for concrete with Sublime cement was similar to a normal mud mat placement, says contractor Turner Construction, which used the product on a Boston-area project.
Photo courtesy of Sublime Systems
Microsoft Corp. has agreed to purchase up to 622,500 tons of low-carbon cementitious materials from Sublime Systems’ first commercial factory in Holyoke, Mass., as well as the full-scale factory it plans to develop in the next six to nine years.
The tech giant will use low-carbon Sublime Cement to reduce the company’s carbon footprint across its planned portfolio of projects, including data centers, over the next two decades. Sublime produces its cement products, including concrete, using an electrolytic process to convert limestone to lime that is similar to that used for metals such as aluminum, magnesium and copper.
The approach replaces the traditional energy-intensive, high-temperature lime production process with one that can be done at room temperature.
“In designing creative transactions such as this one with Sublime, Microsoft aims to accelerate the mass production and adoption of clean construction materials, enabling innovators to overcome the real, acute challenges of scaling in heavy industries with existing manufacturing capacity,” said Jeff Leeper, vice president of global data center construction at Microsoft, in a statement. “We need breakthrough, reimagined products like Sublime Cement at scale to reduce emissions—both at Microsoft and globally.”
Sublime hailed the deal as a boost to the company’s next phase of growth. “This purchase enables Microsoft to access Sublime’s low-carbon cement technology regardless of where their construction is,” said Sublime Systems CEO and co-founder Leah Ellis in a statement. “This solves a previously intractable challenge for clean cement scale-up: the lack of long-term cement transactions contrasted with the immediate need for innovators to demonstrate bankable customers to fund their manufacturing.”
Sublime recently completed its first two projects using concrete made from its low-carbon cement in Boston with contractor Turner Construction and ready-mix supplier Boston Sand and Gravel. Both the contractor and the concrete supplier said that the process was no different than providing ready-mix concrete ready for placement to any other work site.
Contractors will ultimately be the ones to fulfill Microsoft’s commitments to purchase the concrete used in the developer/owner’s mission critical projects.
“We are really focused on figuring out the right agreement structures with the general contractors,” said Cory Waltrip, senior manager of business development and strategy at Sublime. “We’ve been working really hard to figure out how to best partner with these organizations and how can they help us scale.”
While Microsoft has paused some of its data center construction, the Redmond, Wash.-based software and cloud computing giant still has plans for an ambitious portfolio of mission critical projects that it considers the digital infrastructure behind everything from artificial intelligence services to aviation modernization in the U.S.
ENR Associate Technology, Equipment and Products Editor Jeff Yoders has been writing about design and construction innovations for 20 years. He is a five-time Jesse H. Neal award winner and multiple ASBPE winner for his tech coverage. Jeff previously wrote about construction technology for Structural Engineer, CE News and Building Design + Construction. He also wrote about materials prices, construction procurement and estimation for MetalMiner.com. He lives in Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper, where the pace of innovation never leaves him without a story to chase.