Visakhapatnam-based GreenJams is probably the world’s first construction materials manufacturer to make carbon-negative building blocks -Agrocrete-made of crop residues and industrial by-products.
The start-up company substantiates its carbon-negative claim by publishing a third-party verified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for its flagship innovation. The EPD system is originally established in 1998 and is based on the European Standard EN15804 (A1 and A2) as well as ISO 21930. GreenJams is a part of the Andhra University Incubation Ecosystem and has an operational facility in Merrut, UP with a capacity of 2,000 blocks per day.
One facility at Visakhapatnam has a capacity of 3,000 blocks per day and another facility at Hyderabad is coming up in the next three months. The company with its biggest customer being ITC Ltd is also working on orders for residential, commercial, and industrial projects from Roorkee, Rishikesh, Surajgarh, Chennai, Meerut, Kapurthala, and New Delhi.
Agrocrete, the carbon-negative brick can potentially replace conventional bricks and lower the construction cost by up to 50% and operational costs by 30% according to GreenJams.It can be moulded into various forms and shapes such as blocks, tiles, decorative plastic, etc., and the company offers different block sizes from 4 to 9 inches in length with costs varying from Rs 26 to Rs 55 per block.
