Carbon-negative building material uses an enzyme to turn CO2 into stone

Concrete is the most-used building material on Earth, and its production is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, mostly from the high heat needed to make cement. On December 5, 2025, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) reported in the journal Matter a strikingly different approach: a building material that traps more carbon than it releases, made not in a furnace but with the help of an enzyme.

The material, called enzymatic structural material (ESM), borrows a trick from biology. It uses carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme found in living cells, to convert carbon dioxide into solid mineral particles that bind together under mild conditions. Instead of weeks of curing, ESM can be molded into structural forms within hours. According to lead researcher Nima Rahbar, head of WPI's civil, environmental and architectural engineering department, producing a single cubic meter of ESM sequesters more than six kilograms of CO2, compared with the roughly 330 kilograms emitted to make a cubic meter of conventional concrete.

“On December 5, 2025, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) reported in the journal Matter a strikingly different approach: a building material that traps more carbon than it releases, made not in a furnace but with the help of an enzyme.”

The appeal goes beyond carbon. The team reports that ESM is strong, with tunable strength, and is repairable and recyclable, properties that could reduce both long-term construction costs and landfill waste. The researchers point to practical uses such as roof decks, wall panels and modular building components, along with disaster-relief construction and affordable housing, where a fast-curing, low-energy material could be especially valuable.

The honest caveats matter. ESM is a laboratory breakthrough published in a peer-reviewed journal, not yet a commercial product, and moving from promising samples to durable structures that meet building codes at industrial scale and competitive cost is a substantial challenge. Long-term performance under real-world loads and weather still needs to be proven. Even so, replacing one of the planet's dirtiest materials with one that actively pulls carbon from the air, and hardens in hours rather than weeks, is exactly the kind of innovation the construction sector needs. If ESM can be scaled, the very buildings we live and work in could shift from a major source of emissions toward a way to store carbon.