The HESTIA program aims to support the development of technologies that cancel out embodied emissions while transforming buildings into net carbon storage structures. HESTIA projects will develop and demonstrate building materials and whole-building designs from a wide range of potential feedstocks (e.g., forestry and purpose-grown products, agricultural residues, direct carbon utilization) that are net carbon negative on a life-cycle basis by using atmospheric CO2 in the production process.

HESTIA metrics include:

Storage of more carbon in the chemical structure of the finished product than emitted during manufacture and/or use

Relevant performance testing (e.g., flammability, strength) per building code and incumbent specifications

Market advantage (e.g., improved material performance in at least one area, lower cost, or easier installation) over the best-in-class incumbent building element

Sufficient retention of carbon storage over service lifetime and minimized end-of-life emissions where possible by designing for reuse, repurposing, and/or recycling

ARPA-E seeks submissions spanning a range of possible feedstocks, materials, building elements, and building types.

HESTIA addresses the need for negative emission technologies to implement carbon removal strategies. The program changes the paradigm for building construction by using carbon negativity as a key design parameter. HESTIA is also important to reducing embodied emissions. The majority of these are concentrated at the start of a building’s lifetime and locked in before the building is ever used. Embodied emissions increase to a greater percentage of total building emissions due to operational efficiency improvements from more stringent building energy codes and a decarbonized electric grid as well as the higher emissions of materials added to achieve increased operational efficiency. This upfront emissions spike equals 10 years of operational emissions in a building constructed to meet standard code, but increases to 35 years for more advanced, higher operating efficiency buildings, and more than 50 years for high-efficiency buildings operating with lower carbon intensity energy (Rock, M. et. al., “Embodied GHG emissions of buildings,” Applied Energy 258, 114107 (2020)). These time horizons exceed the window between now and fulfilling 2050 climate targets, which means embodied emission reduction strategies are a high priority.

HESTIA projects will facilitate the use of carbon negative materials in building construction by optimizing materials chemistries and matrices, manufacturing, and building designs in a cost-effective manner.