Cement is by far the most produced artificial material in the world, with global demand nowadays around 4.2 Gt.y-1 or ~0,5 t.y-1.capita-1. Making cement requires thermal decomposition of limestone, a geological carbon stock. This releases the chemically bound CO2 – a hoping 44% of limestone mass together with the carbon from fuels. Despite the significant improvement of industrial processes and products, it is still today responsible for about 6-8% of anthropogenic carbon. 
But from environmental point of view this is not all: cement itself is not a building material, but an ingredient to produce concrete and mortar, where cement is typically 15% of the total wait. The actual resource footprint of cement-based materials is therefore about 8 times higher than the amount of cement, around 4 t per year, representing about 30% of all natural resources extracted. The durability of concrete leads to the accumulation of construction waste, marking the Anthropocene.
Cement-based materials are essential for modern life. This dominant position is result of at least two factors: (a) raw materials are abundant worldwide; (b) cost and price are low, typically one order of magnitude lower than bottled mineral water, despite the fact a typical cement plant requires USD $200M; (c) is very easy to use even for untrained people. Cost and usability, which allows people to keep building their houses by themselves, are crucial in the developing world, where the future demand is concentrated. 
Because current mitigation technologies are exhausted, industry is forecasting carbon capture will be responsible for 1/3 of the future mitigation will. Cost alone makes CCS unsustainable.  Therefore, sustainable cement requires rapidly scalable innovation. 
We are going to discuss low-carbon, low cost, easy-to-use solutions that have potential to be rapidly deployed at scale.  Research opportunities for the academic community will be presented.