One Boston Wharf Road
Update
10/03/24
WS Development and Sublime Systems Celebrate Ribbon Cutting of New England’s Largest Net Zero Carbon Building
On October 1st leaders dedicated to advancing low-carbon cement as tool for reducing the built environment’s massive share of global CO2 emissions (over 40%) gathered to celebrate the first commercial installations of Sublime Systems’ technology, in Boston’s largest net-zero-carbon office building, recently completed by WS Development in Boston’s Seaport. Local, state, and federal officials convened with executives representing union labor and the construction industry at One Boston Wharf, to unveil the first sidewalk made with low-carbon Sublime Cement™, following an earlier integration in the building’s interior concrete lobby.
“In the finest revolutionary traditions of our fair city, we say: a step on our floor made of Sublime Cement™ is a step toward our carbon-free future, and a step heard round the world,” said the event’s host, WS Development SVP of Development Yanni Tsipis.
In a transaction announced in 2021, Amazon has leased the entirety of the office space within One Boston Wharf, creating a total footprint of over 1 million square feet within WS Development’s expansive 33-acre Boston Seaport development. One Boston Wharf is reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90% below code requirements and eliminating 5.1 million pounds of CO2 emissions annually.
Founded in 2020, Sublime Systems is commercializing breakthrough, “true zero” manufacturing technology that avoids both the mineral and fossil fuel emission sources characteristic of portland cement. Its electrochemical process runs at near-ambient temperature and uses clean electricity and carbon-free inputs to produce reactive cementitious ingredients that are highly engineered for an optimally performing cement in concrete.
“We all want to be in this beautiful building, and we all want to be in a future that is just and that is clean and that is sustainable,” said Sublime Systems CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Leah Ellis. “This commercial project here in Seaport has been essential in driving the volume and demand that will bring us to market. Following this deployment earlier this year, we’ve gotten partnerships from Vineyard Wind, from Microsoft, and from two of the largest cement companies in the world, CRH and Holcim, who recently invested $75 million into Sublime Systems to further scale up this technology.
The distinguished speakers at the ribbon cutting collectively addressed the need for low-carbon cement in fighting the climate crisis; how the local, state, and federal government can accelerate this transition as they collectively consume more than 50% of the cement in the U.S.; the climate tech leadership of Boston and Massachusetts; the early movers in the construction industry; the role of union labor in supporting the new clean economy; and the policy ambitions of the Biden-Harris Administration enabling the pursuit of these broad ambitions in tandem.
“Low-carbon cement is going to help us decarbonize our global economy, and today, as we have so many times, the transformation is beginning right here in Massachusetts,” said Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey. “This is an example of Massachusetts’ leadership once again. Many months ago, in my State of the State Address, I held up and pointed to Sublime Systems as something special that we have going on here in Massachusetts.”
Photo: Boston Seaport by WS, photographer: Eric Levin