Rethinking Infrastructure: Decarbonization Through Durability
Host: Alex Cameron, Founder & CEO, Decarb Connect
Guest: Eric Van Genderen, Director of Environment, Health & Sustainability, International Zinc Association
Industrial co2 efforts tend to focus on fuels, technologies, and process change, yet a major source of avoidable emissions sits in plain sight: premature infrastructure failure. Roads, bridges, and wastewater systems that corrode decades earlier than planned lock in repeated cycles of repairs that are both carbon and capital-intensive. In this episode, we explore why durability is emerging as a critical lever in reducing lifetime emissions, and how smarter material choices can reshape the economics and carbon profile of long-life assets.
Eric Van Genderen from the International Zinc Association makes the case that we're systematically miscounting the carbon cost of infrastructure by ignoring what happens when it fails early. The fix isn't new technology. Galvanised steel has been a proven solution for nearly a century. What's broken is the decision-making model where federal governments fund construction and municipalities inherit the replacement bill decades later, with no mechanism connecting upfront material choices to long-term carbon or cost outcomes.
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