The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2017–2026
Elementic's carbon tiles store CO₂ in walls — Red Dot Best of the Best 2026
Carbon-negative wall tiles from forestry waste: Elementic's MO6 locks in almost 3 kg of CO₂ per kg and won Red Dot's top prize 2026.
Elementic
What it had to solve
Building materials account for around a third of a building's total emissions, and cement alone drives about eight per cent of global direct CO₂. Forestry by-products are usually incinerated, releasing the carbon the trees captured. Elementic wanted construction to store carbon instead of emitting it.
How it works
Elementic MO6 Carbon Tiles are wall tiles made from forestry industry waste, carbonised in an oxygen-free process into a pure-carbon material that permanently stores CO₂ — almost three kilograms per kilogram of tile. They won the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 'Best of the Best'.
The context is stark: building materials account for around a third of a building's total emissions, and cement alone is responsible for about eight per cent of global direct CO₂ emissions. Meanwhile, forestry by-products are mostly incinerated, releasing the carbon the trees had captured.
Elementic, a Finnish company, has worked on carbon-negative building materials since 2017. Its answer turns the waste stream into a solid element: the tiles are robust yet lightweight, fire-resistant, improve acoustics and meet indoor-air quality requirements, with deep matt-anthracite, volcanic-stone-like surfaces in rough and smooth finishes.
The jury described the product as a 'forward-looking, climate-positive building material' that demonstrates how bio-carbon becomes an atmospheric, tactile element in interiors. Elementic's next ambition is bricks and blocks for solid structures — a vision in which entire cities could become carbon sinks.
Why it lands
- Oxygen-free carbonisation converts waste biomass into stable carbon, so the CO₂ stays locked in the wall instead of being released by incineration.
- It targets the biggest lever — building materials are a third of a building's emissions — rather than a niche decoration gimmick.
- The tiles are functional first (fire-resistant, acoustic, indoor-air safe), so the carbon story rides on a product that already works.
- Presenting the carbon as dark, tactile, stone-like surfaces made 'carbon' something designers want to touch, not just a climate number.
What it did
MO6 Carbon Tiles won Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 'Best of the Best'. The jury called them a 'forward-looking, climate-positive building material' that complements forest carbon sequestration and stores CO₂ securely inside buildings; Elementic's stated vision is to extend the material to bricks and blocks — transforming entire cities into carbon sinks.
What you can take
Make the product itself the argument: when the material sequesters almost 3 kg of CO₂ per kg, sustainability stops being a marketing claim and becomes the measurable core of the design.
Since then
MO6 launched in 2026 as Elementic's first commercial product, and the Red Dot award gave the material an immediate design-world platform. The company's roadmap points beyond tiles to structural bricks and blocks; if that scales, the same carbon-negative chemistry could turn whole buildings — even cities — into long-term carbon storage. Whether the economics hold at scale remains to be proven, but the award validated the core claim: a building material that stores rather than emits carbon.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card