Former NBA Champion Changes ‘How He Builds the World’ to Fight Climate Crisis

London
CNN Business
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Three years ago, a hurricane Destroyed The Bahamas, claimed dozens of lives. Today, the country is building what it claims to be the first in the world carbon negative Residential community to reduce future potential climatic disasters To alleviate the housing shortage caused by the storm.

Rick Fox, a former Los Angeles Lakers player, is the backbone of the new housing project. The ex-basketball player and Bahamian citizen is spurred into action after witnessing the devastation caused by it Hurricane Dorian In 2019, Fox teamed up with architect Sam Marshall, whose Malibu home was badly damaged Forest fires In 2018, to develop Partanna, a building material that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The technology is being put to the test in the Bahamas, where Fox, Bartana, Bahamas, is partnering with the government to build 1,000 hurricane-resistant homes, including single-family homes and apartments. The first 30 units will be delivered next year in the Abaco Islands, which have been hit hard by durian.

“Innovation and new technology will play a critical role in averting the worst climate scenarios,” said Philip Davis, Prime Minister of the Bahamas, in a statement. The partnership between the Bahamas government and Bartana Bahamas is scheduled to be officially announced on Wednesday at the COP27 Climate Summit in Egypt.

As a country on the frontline of the climate crisis, the Bahamas knows that time is up, Fox told CNN Business. “They don’t have time to wait for someone to save them,” he added.

“Technology can change the tide, and we at Partanna have developed a solution that can change how the world is built,” Fox said.

Partanna is made from natural and recycled ingredients, including steel slag, a by-product of steelmaking, and brine from desalination. It does not contain resins and plastics and avoids the pollution caused by cement production about 4%-8% of global carbon emissions from human activities.

Meanwhile, the use of brine helps solve the growing waste problem in the desalination industry by preventing the toxic solution from being dumped back into the ocean.

Almost all buildings naturally absorb carbon dioxide through a process called carbonation – the carbon dioxide in the air reacts with the minerals in the concrete. but Partana says her homes are removing carbon from the atmosphere at a much faster rate due to the density of the material.

The material also emits almost no carbon during manufacture.

Partana house will 1250 square feet It contributes a “negligible amount” of carbon dioxide during manufacturing, with 22.5 tons of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere after production, making it “completely carbon negative throughout the product’s life cycle,” according to the company.

By comparison, a standard cement house of the same size typically generates 70.2 tons of CO2 during production.

The use of salt water means that Bartana homes are also resistant to corrosion from sea water, making them ideal for residents of small island countries such as the Bahamas. This can make it easier for homeowners to obtain insurance.

The carbon credits generated by each home will be traded and used to fund various social impact initiatives, including promoting home ownership among low-income families.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the losses incurred by Rick Fox and Sam Marshall as a result of Hurricane Dorian and wildfires.