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Canada's CarbonCure Technologies uses carbon dioxide produced during the cement-making process to fill tiny voids in concrete blocks. As a result, the block absorbs less water, is 20% stronger and more sustainable, according to this article. Builders can use the product to help set them apart from competitors and can "reduce the cost of their production by harnessing the material benefits of CO2, such as high early strength, lower water absorption, and other secondary benefits," says Robert Niven, the company's founder

The problem of ocean waste, particularly the plastic variety, is a big one, and many creative people are working on ways to clean it up. Finding ways to repurpose the plastic debris collected from the ocean is one component of that, and the U.S.-based startup ByFusion has responded with technology that recycles ocean plastic into durable construction blocks. This way, the plastic waste can be repurposed permanently, rather than being used to create another disposable plastic item that might wind up right back in our precious waterways.

Technology that compresses plastic waste items turns them into blocks suitable for construction, providing a permanent way to remove discarded plastic from the environment. The RePlast system developed by New Zealand-based inventor Peter Lewis is said to be nearly 100% carbon neutral and doesn't require the plastic to be sorted or washed.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has now dumped 96 million balls into local reservoirs to reduce evaporation and block sunlight from encouraging algae growth and toxic chemical reactions. The balls are coated with a chemical that blocks ultraviolet light and helps the spheres last as long as 25 years.

Developer FivePoint has a new plan to reduce carbon emissions at its proposed $12.7 billion master-planned community in California's Los Angeles County after a court blocked the project on environmental grounds. The company hopes to begin construction in 2018 and will implement zero-net-energy construction when it builds the 21,500 homes, each of which will have a charging station for electric vehicle.

The Energy Information Agency emphasized the growing importance of offshore wind to the US energy landscape in its year-end summary, according to this piece. The summary also touted the significance of Deepwater Wind's Block Island wind farm off of Rhode Island -- the first of its kind in the US.

New data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration also highlighted another potential contradiction: Virtually every state suing to block the Clean Power Plan has itself shifted toward burning less coal to generate the electricity its residents need since the year 2007 - in some cases by very large amounts.

Today, the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) and the Well Building Institute (IWBI) announced a new partnership that strives to make health and wellness a more fundamental building block of green building design.

Pokonobe Associates is recycling commercial plastic fishing nets to make the lightweight, stackable blocks for a new version of its Jenga game. The company's Ocean Jenga also will educate consumers about ending ocean pollution, about 10% of which is caused by discarded or lost fishing nets.

The House is expected to vote on a pair of Congressional Review Act resolutions that would stop the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan and a separate rule for new power plants. The Senate approved its own resolutions before the Thanksgiving break