Lime - naturally green

The third in our series of taster days took place last week. This time the focus was on lime plaster with an informative and accessible presentation by Nigel from The Lime Centre, followed by an on-site demonstration of lime plastering.

Besides learning about the benefits of using lime in historic building projects such as the Heart of the Park project, the non-chemists among us also learnt about an additional benefit which is particularly relevant to our project. Cement and lime both give off considerable amounts of CO2 in production but unlike lime, which reabsorbs between 45% and 61% of CO2 per ton depending on the strength grade, cement does not reabsorb any CO2 as it dries. Some of the new, low energy materials that we are using in the renovation actually contain a large amount of embodied carbon. Lime, however, is one product that wears its green credentials on its sleeve.