Word: cemented
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...Even if this year's coaching moves backfire, don't expect a more patient approach to return. Coaches will no longer get the chance to grow with their players. "I wouldn't cement this year's record. It's one of those things that will get broken in the next year or so," says Van Gundy. "I don't think anyone cares about how the coaches are treated." Except, of course, for a fellow fired coach...
...chemical firm AkzoNobel, this year started selling a new type of paint called Ecosure that sharply reduces the amount of embodied carbon and other so-called volatile organic compounds--and is being heavily marketed as "a new era in sustainability and performance." At the R&D center of French cement giant Lafarge, director Pascal Casanova waxes lyrical about Ductal, a superresilient concrete the center developed that he calls the Formula One of concrete. It's what architect Ferrier used in his 807-ft. (246 m) Hypergreen tower, a project that wouldn't have been possible with regular concrete...
...sense of how technological progress is translating into environmental gains, take a trip to the research campus of Lafarge, just outside the French city of Lyons. The world's largest cement company, with sales of $22.5 billion in 2007, Lafarge has set itself the goal by 2010 of cutting its net CO2 emissions for every ton of cement it produces to 20% below the 1990 level. But it is also steaming ahead with research efforts into smarter, stronger and less polluting products, including ultra-high-performance concrete. Research director Casanova traces the path of innovation back to the 1980s, when...
Stronger concrete translates into significant gains for the environment because it can be applied more thinly, consuming considerably fewer raw materials than regular concrete. (The basic mixture includes cement, stone or other aggregate and water.) Moreover, concrete has some properties that make it intrinsically energy-efficient when used in buildings. It insulates well because it's poured and thus doesn't let in wind and water. Its density also means that it stores heat during the day and releases it at night, making it possible to save on air-conditioning and heating. Architects including Ferrier are playing with such possibilities...
Lafarge is by no means alone. Franz-Josef Ulm, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a concrete expert, says "there's not one single cement company that is not looking at" ways to improve the resistance of concrete. He still sees room for improvement. The next step is to create materials with higher strength but that use the same amount of initial material, says...