Sublime Systems

We are proud to officially announce a second partnership with a global cement major, CRH! This combined $75M investment and pre-paid offtake of Sublime Cement™ from Holcim and CRH doubles Sublime's reach. In the near-term it shores up development of our first commercial plant in Holyoke, while simultaneously laying the foundation (pun intended!) for future development together of Sublime megaton plants in multiple regions once Holyoke is complete.  Cement is an industry considered hard to abate because of legacy fossil-fueled processes that have scaled across the globe for decades. By pairing our expertise in electrochemical technology and innovation with CRH's and Holcim’s well-oiled machines in cement operations and distribution, we have the best possible shot at advancing our breakthrough technology with the scale and urgency both the massive global construction industry and the climate crisis demand. It is a thrill to be working with these incredible partners, and we could not be more excited to #KeepBuilding, together!  #investment #cement #lowcarboncement #NYCW #stratgicpartnerships #climateinnovation #sustainablebuilding

Congratulations to the companies, state and local governments that are making new pledges to produce and use low-carbon cement in infrastructure, and RMI and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who are helping to drive this change. 🏛 States and cities are making new pledges to use lower-carbon materials in public infrastructure: New York State, New York City, the City of Los Angeles, Washington State, and Michigan. 🏗 Companies are announcing commitments that build on the Federal Buy Clean Initiative to support strong, durable markets for cleaner construction materials: Cemex, National Ready Mixed Concrete Company, Ozinga, Sublime Systems, C-Crete Technologies, and Urban Mining Industries - Pozzotive®. 💻 Major technology companies committed to piloting cutting edge technologies: Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Meta. 🏢 Real estate firms committed to using cleaner materials in their buildings: BXP, Inc. (Boston Properties), Clark Pacific, Turner Construction Company, Weldon Development Group Kate Brandt, Kara H. Hurst, Melanie Nakagawa, Julia Gisewite, Theodore Weldon, Allan Bedwell, Leah Ellis, Joe Hicken, Louis P. Grasso, Jr., Rouzbeh Savary, Nancy Sutley, Yanni Tsipis, Gretchen Whitmer, Governor Jay Inslee, Jon Creyts, Bryan Fisher, Heather House, Manish Bapna, Christy Goldfuss, Justina Gallegos, Andres Clarens, Mikhail Haramati, Ben Beachy, James Hove, Madeline Reeves

Perhaps you’ve seen our recent ribbon cutting news and wondered what’s so special about a sidewalk?! This video should answer that question. Cement and the concrete it enables are so ubiquitous they are practically invisible. We all traverse sidewalks every day, but how often do you *think* about them? They deserve to be recognized and even admired. Sidewalks are incredibly technical. They have to withstand high-volume foot traffic and harsh outdoor elements like de-icing agents and the repeated cycles of freezing and thawing, particularly in New England’s climate. When people think of cleantech, they often think of solar panels and wind turbines. We'd like you to also think about cleantech when you walk on sidewalks, as we are working to #KeepBuilding sidewalks that are low carbon. This pour at WS Development's site in Boston Seaport is the first step in doing just that. Thank you to our colleagues Joe Hicken and Brandon Williams for telling the story so well and for our terrific videographer Lillie Paquette of In Short Media. #lowcarboncement #sidewalks #climatetech #sustainablebuilding

We are excited to be growing our bench at Sublime with deep concrete industry expertise. Today we’re highlighting David Myers, who works with us as a Senior R&D and Strategy Advisor. David has 26+ years working in the cement and concrete admixture space, most recently leading strategic partnerships for the construction chemicals unit of Saint-Gobain, following its acquisition of GCP Applied Technologies. At GCP David managed a portfolio of businesses with sales of $75 million, following his role as VP R&D for the company’s cement and concrete admixtures unit. His blend of scientific and commercial experience and depth in the admixture space have already proven to be huge assets to our team as we continue to tune our Sublime Cement™ for both maximal decarbonization and performance in concrete. #KeepBuilding

Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of the patent filing for ordinary portland cement (OPC). To celebrate, we at Sublime gathered the construction community to throw the material its first ever “retirement party,” in good fun.     Like any long-tenured, highly accomplished leader, OPC deserves recognition for its innovation and its impact on our world. The material and subsequent improvements in concrete enabled us to improve and modernize dramatically over the last two centuries — and unfortunately contributed significantly to our planet’s carbon emissions and climate problem in the process.  At Sublime we are reinventing the high-emitting product that is OPC, while adhering to existing performance-based standards and enabling the same high-performing concrete that we've grown accustomed to. We convened leaders across the complex cement value chain to discuss how we can work together and within our particular disciplines to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon cement and retire OPC for good. It was a night of incredible community, conversation, and cement- and 1824-themed activities. A huge thanks to our sponsor and landlord Somernova who made this party possible and to our guests who came out to celebrate and commit to advancing the post-carbon future. #KeepBuilding #OPC200 #retirement #lowcarboncement    

This piece from Emily Pontecorvo (and further commentary from Joe Hicken) details how book and claim markets enable an inherently local product (cement) to scale to customers across geographic markets looking for new low-carbon construction materials to lower their corporate Scope 3 emissions. We are excited to work with Microsoft and leaders like Brian Sifton and Julia Fidler to further "cement" a transaction where they would buy the environmental attributes of our low-carbon Sublime Cement™, and we'd deploy the building material locally from our first commercial plants. Read the full piece here to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gVjt6KTU #KeepBuilding #lowcarboncement #bookandclaim

As we bring on new commercial partners and celebrate our first building projects in Boston, momentum continues for our first commercial facility in Holyoke, MA. This past summer we demolished a more than 100-year-old, coal-burning smokestack on the site, as we ready ourselves to construct our plant there. This factory will be critical for retiring scale-up risk of our technology that manufactures cement without the fossil fuels and limestone that has made our industry a major contributor to global CO2 emissions.     The smokestack imploding felt to us like a powerful symbol of Holyoke’s transition from its original industrial roots (formerly the paper manufacturing hub of the world) to its future of enabling new clean technologies to scale. We are honored to be partnering with Holyoke in this, and we are working hard to bring jobs and tangible benefits to the community in the near-term as we scale our cement manufacturing to address climate change and build sustainably for generations to come. This work is enabled by our support from the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations | U.S. Department of Energy, who selected us to receive up to an $87 million investment towards building our Holyoke plant through their Industrial Demonstrations Program. This program invests in the scaling of technologies that are working to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries, make America a leader in clean industrial manufacturing, and support labor and job growth in their host communities as they do so.    Watch below to see the moment of implosion — we hope you find it as mesmerizing as we do! Thanks to our vendors, everything went safely and smoothly, which is not a given in smokestack implosion projects. And thank you to our Project Development Manager Matthew Muspratt for bringing his drone photography skills to the cause. Stay tuned for more updates from Holyoke as we #KeepBuilding.   #lowcarboncement #scaleup #industrialdecarbonization #firstcommercialplant    

We agree with the importance of connecting the entire building value chain to accelerate the clean transition, and we are excited to be partnering with Holcim on this journey!

We are honored to be an MIT Technology Review Climate Tech Company to Watch for the second year in the row! This award is special for us because being on this list in 2023 is what helped catch the attention of Yanni Tsipis at WS Development, who then opted to integrate Sublime Cement™  into their One Boston Wharf building for our first commercial projects. What better way to celebrate this year than by hosting our ribbon cutting ceremony at the building that morning then teaming up for a great panel at #EmTech that afternoon. Yanni, our VP of Policy & BD Joe Hicken, and reporter Casey Crownhart discussed the role of sustainable construction and particularly low-carbon cement in addressing climate change, with an up-close look at how our project came together. #KeepBuilding #lowcarboncement #sustainableconstruction #lowembodiedcarbon #firstcommercial

Boston-area climate and construction community friends, please join us for a special event at our headquarters on October 21st! The occasion? Reflecting on the 200th anniversary of the patent filing for ordinary portland cement (OPC). This technology has since become the predominant cement globally, and with it driving the industry to 8% of global CO2 emissions, thanks to the combination of carbon-intensive limestone and fossil-fueled kilns. We think of this event as the first (of many) "retirement" parties for OPC. We're gathering the best thinkers in the Boston area to network and celebrate the climate innovations that will promise a much cleaner next 200 years. There will be some cement-themed trivia and games, so come prepared! A huge thanks to our friends at Somernova for sponsoring this event. Deeply rooted in the neighborhood vibe of Somerville’s Union Square, Somernova is a 7.4-acre campus for innovation and community whose mission is to help people and companies iterate and grow faster. Register here and spread the word: https://lnkd.in/enn9n8en #KeepBuilding #climatetech #sustainability #lowcarboncement #retirement