Construction is responsible for approximately one third of all carbon dioxide emissions. We can respond to this by increasing the use of wood in construction. Dr. Iztok Šušteršič and Dr. Karen Butina Ogorelec, InnoRenew CoE researchers, shared their thoughts about this with STA.

“Wood is carbon neutral and if we use it in buildings for a long time, we are in a way sequestering carbon dioxide,” said Dr. Šušteršič.

Dr. Karen Butina Ogorelec spoke about the activities they are carrying out in the framework of the ERC project Bioinspired living skin for architecture (ARCHI-SKIN) which aims to revolutionise the protection of materials by developing a new generation of living materials or living coating systems, using coatings made from the cells of living organisms such as fungi. They are studying biofilms as a key component of new coatings.

You can read more about the efforts of Dr. Šušteršič and Dr. Butina Ogorelec in the article Slovenski raziskovalci v boj proti propadanju lesa z živimi premazi za samozdravljenje materialov, published on STAscience and watch the accompanying video.