Why Innovation in the Construction Industry is Key to Tackling the Affordable Housing

In today’s episode of the Brains Byte Back podcast, we speak with Mateo Zimmermann, Investment Manager at CEMEX Ventures, a company that invests in innovative construction startups aiming to foster the construction revolution. Zimmermann shares how the company started in 2016 with the idea of partnering with top minds and entrepreneurial spirits to bring innovation to the construction industry, which is lagging behind other industries. They also aimed to capture most of that innovation and change the productivity gap in the industry. During the conversation, Zimmermann discusses the challenges faced by young people in finding affordable housing. He notes that in many countries, including Spain where he is from, the culture is to buy a home rather than rent, and young people are struggling to afford even renting a place due to the high costs. This leads to uncertainty for the future and delays in pursuing careers and personal lives. Zimmermann advocates that the solution is more housing, but he also notes that the problem goes deeper, with the construction industry contributing to almost 30% of CO2 emissions, making climate action and sustainability a critical issue for the industry to address. Mateo discusses the various ways that CEMEX is tackling this issue, including focusing on new construction materials with a lower carbon footprint. He draw on an example from one of their portfolio companies which uses plastic waste in concrete to create a sustainable landfill where the waste is buried into the structure of buildings or different elements of the construction.  Another focus is on carbon capture utilization and storage, which involves capturing CO2 emissions and finding ways to process, store, or utilize them.  And finally, Zimmermann speaks about the future of the construction industry, where he talks about how they are exploring the use of automation and robotics in construction, which could increase productivity and reduce labor costs. Links 🔗 Our Guest🙋: Find out more about Mateo Zimmermann here (LinkedIn) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mateozg/?locale=en_US Find out more about CEMEX Ventures (website) - https://www.cemexventures.com/ Brains Byte Back 🧠👨‍💻🎙️: Leave an iTunes review here - https://apple.co/3i60XWu Subscribe on Youtube here - https://bit.ly/3o1M4Z3 Follow us on your favorite podcast platform here - https://bit.ly/3kTfNkY Our Sponsor 💻☎️: Find out more about our sponsor Publicize here - https://bit.ly/3X6p7SB