RIDDLE ME THIS, BATMAN

What is green and gray and strides the world like a Colossus?

Need a hint?  It is a better way to build.  Need more hints?  It is used around the world.  It has been produced in space.  It is built to last.  It is the way to a homebuyer’s heart.

No one knows what we would do without it.  Stone-age Syrians used it in 6500 BC. European hunters used it in 5600 BC.  It was used by Chinese farmers in 3000 BC … by Egyptians in 2500 BC … and by people throughout the Mediterranean Sea region since 1000 BC. 

The Romans named it, tamed it, and used it to conquer the world.

It is the ultimate building material.  Enough of it is manufactured in the United States each year to build a six-lane superhighway completely around the earth at its equator. Slightly more than one ton of it is processed each year for every person on earth. About four tons of it is processed each year for each Wisconsinite.

It is the natural alternative for home building.  It consumes more than 70% of all cement production.  It is the right approach for your home or business. 

In its simplest form, it is a basic mixture of sand, stone, cement, and water.  Yet it can be used for footings, foundations, and flooring and roofing systems; in low, mid, and high-rise construction; for bridge decks and all types of pavements; and in works of art.

It provides thermal mass and air infiltration resistance in thermo-engineered wall systems.

It is subtle.  It is malleable.  It is functional.  It gets stronger with age. 

Frank Lloyd (Wright) thought it was destined to become “the physical body of our modern, civilized world.”  Tommy Edison loved it, and built homes out of it. 

It costs less than four cents (4¢) a pound.  It fares well both ecologically and economically in life-cycle analysis.  It is recyclable.  It resists fire, rot, rust, and damage from storm-blown debris, high winds, and other natural disasters.

It helped build the Roman, Los Angeles Memorial, and Dane County Coliseums … the Pantheon … and our Interstate Highway System.  It dams waterways, lines canals, and entombs our nuclear wastes.

It is the most beautiful, durable, versatile, available, and environmentally friendly construction material in the history of the planet.

It ... is concrete. 

Why is it in danger of becoming a commodity?