Eco bricks for earthquake-resistant homes

A company empowers local people to make and build with low-carbon bricks

Spotted: Brick-making is extremely energy intensive, with brick kilns generating around 1.8 million tonnes of CO2 a year, along with huge volumes of other air pollutants. Clay-fired bricks, which include cement, account for up to 37 per cent of Nepal’s greenhouse gas emissions, a situation that Build Up Nepal (BUN) is hoping to change. The company has developed a sustainable, resilient, and low-carbon alternative to traditional fired bricks.

BUN was founded by Björn Söderberg and his wife Bina Shrestha back in 2015, when a huge earthquake hit Nepal. Wanting to find a way to help citizens build disaster-resistant homes, without harming the environment, Build Up Nepal was born. BUN’s eco bricks are compressed instead of fired, cutting CO2 emissions by 75 per cent and air pollution by 90 per cent, according to the company.

The bricks are made from local materials like stone dust and contain only around six to seven per cent cement while still being strong and earthquake resilient. In addition, the eco bricks are also significantly cheaper than fired ones.

Clementine Logan, head of communications and partnerships at the company, explained to Springwise that its bricks feature an interlocking system that requires less cement and mortar than traditional building techniques. BUN sells brick-making equipment to local entrepreneurs, trains them to produce bricks from local materials like stone, soil, dust, and fibres, and teaches them how to build disaster-resilient structures.

BUN’s technology is now approved by the Nepalese government’s Building Code, making it easier to scale and promote widespread adoption. The company estimates that each house built with its technology reduces emissions by 9.5 tonnes of CO2e. According to Logan, the technology “has saved over 100,000 tonnes of CO2e, by replacing fired bricks – equivalent to more than 35,000 round-trip flights between London and Kathmandu”.

BUN is currently working to reduce the cement content even further, with the ultimate goal of 100 per cent carbon-neutral bricks. BUN’s model is designed to scale, with brick-making machines ready for market and financing available to support entrepreneurs in getting started. The company is a finalist for the £1 million 2024 Earthshot Prize, in the Fix Our Climate category, which will be awarded soon.

Written By: Lisa Magloff