The very air we breathe is poisonous. Air pollution is so dire that the United Nations states it’s the greatest health risk of our time. According to the World Health Organisation, 92% of the population lives in extremely poor air-quality conditions. To alleviate this crisis, Mumbai-born Tejas Sidnal is harnessing air pollution to create something we use at the foundation of everyday life – tiles.
Sidnal is an architect, biomimetic, and designer. Utilising his myriad skills, he founded Carbon Craft Designs in 2016, a company innovating eco-friendly solutions with architecture. Their main products are elegant tiles made from upcycled carbon collected from factories. The accumulated gas is fused with building materials to create modern ceramics. One tile is equivalent to cleaning 30 000 litres of air. By creating sustainable solutions for the construction industry, Sidnal is strengthening a circular economy and environmentally-conscious consumerism.
Sidnal has presented talks on his efforts internationally. Through his work, he’s inspiring others to turn pollution into a resource. “There are solutions for all man-made problems,” he says. “We simply need to discover them.”
