Rick Fox isn’t wasting any time when it comes to moving his mission forward to create a sustainable future.
As AFROTECH previously told you, the former NBA star is the co-founder of Partanna, a carbon-negative concrete company founded in 2021. Fox created the company alongside award-winning architect Sam Marshall.
“At Partanna, our mission is to delink development from pollution and build a sustainable future for all,” Partanna’s website wrote. “We are pioneers of the world’s first zero-emission technology that naturally removes carbon from the atmosphere, allowing us to create innovative solutions that meet the needs of tomorrow without sacrificing the planet.”
In May 2023, Partanna raised $12 million in a pre-seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm Cherubic Ventures.
Fast forward to Oct. 16, Partanna unveiled its first home built from sustainable concrete, The Verge reports. Located in Nassau, Bahamas — where Fox grew up and where he currently resides — the prototype house’s alternative concrete is made out of brine and slag, “a byproduct of steel production.”
Depending on the success of the new home in the Bahamas, the outlet details that Partanna aims “to make its alternative concrete an everyday building material that could cut down pollution from construction.” According to the outlet, the building is intended to suck out CO2 as much as an estimated 5,200 mature trees per year.
“I shut down my entire career that was in Hollywood to pursue and create [climate] solutions,” Fox told the outlet. “I had to move around the industry that was new to me and meet people that were looking at me like, ‘What the hell are you doing in concrete?’”
Following the first home, Partanna has formed a partnership with the Bahamian government to build 1,000 homes for first-time homeowners. For 2024, specifically, they are looking to build a community of 29 additional homes.
