Summary Reader Response Draft #4
In the article, “The Self-Healing Concrete That Can Fix Its Own Cracks,” Spinks (2015) states that Hendrik Jonkers created self-healing concrete innovation to “decrease the amount of new concrete produced, lower maintenance and repair costs for city officials, building owners and homeowners” by inlaying self-activating limestone-producing bacteria into the concrete. The self-healing concrete has a longevity of up to 200 years and helps to reduce carbon emitters. However, the concrete can only repair up to 0.8mm wide of cracks and cost €30 per metre cube more than normal concrete. According to Alker, who is director of policy at the UK Green Building Council, it will be hard to convince the industry to adopt the new innovation. It will take unconventional consumers and developers who are willing to test their building with the new concrete to demonstrate positive results before others will support it. Jonker has also been experimenting across the world where he claims that the people re...