Using IT to Reduce World Energy Consumption

Key quote:

_____________
Innovation in the trillion-dollar-per-year construction industry has been pretty sluggish over the past century. The low-tech method for producing standard gypsum drywall, for instance, was invented in 1917. It has plenty of drawbacks-including the release of some 20 billion pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere annually-but is still in use.

Enter Serious Materials, a Sunnyvale, Calif. company that is applying knowhow from the computer hardware and software industries to reengineer the basic building blocks of construction. It's no small feat, given that construction is responsible for 52% of CO2 emissions worldwide-more than transportation and all other industries combined. By giving a high tech makeover to mundane construction materials such as drywall, Serious Materials thinks it could reduce world energy consumption as much as 75% by 2040.
___________

Is that not cool? Imagine how much water they will be able to save in the process...