Nature positive technology, Bahamas partner with Actor to build carbon eating houses 

Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TheBahamas, November 14, 2022 – Houses that breathe are coming to The Bahamas thanks to a new climate-focused partnership between the government and former NBA champion and actor Rick Fox.

Canadian-Bahamian Fox heads Partanna Global, a housing initiative that aims to create ‘carbon negative’ communities with the help of building material that absorbs carbon and will see the company investing $50 million into the Bahamian economy.

The company’s website says the project in The Bahamas is the first step in laying the foundations for the future we need to build and that future is ‘a world that breathes’.

The housing complex will be the first of its kind in the world; in a statement on Monday, November 7, Phillip Davis, Bahamas Prime Minister described the partnership, signed at COP27 in Egypt as, “Both an exciting innovation in helping to reduce carbon, and for The Bahamas, a path to sustainable, long-term adaptation in the face of climate change.”

“This arrangement satisfies two key priorities of the Government of The Bahamas: firstly, to provide affordable, sustainable housing in The Bahamas, and secondly, to meet the carbon priorities of the country,” Davis said.

Partanna is not just the company but the name of the material that will make up the houses.

The company says one 1,250 sq ft cement home emits 70.2 tons of CO2 while the Partanna-made equivalent absorbs 22.5 tons of CO2. The secret the company says is the makeup of the product. Created from sea brine and recycled steel, Partanna houses can withstand hurricane-force winds that destroy traditional CMU-constructed homes, and as Partanna is made with brine, it gets stronger through exposure to saltwater.

Davis says initially Partanna will be allowed to build 30 homes in a pilot project, and then the company must provide proof of verification for the Carbon Credit (CER) in relation to the technology used in the construction of the homes.

A single CER represents one tonne of CO2 that a company is allowed to emit, and the amount of carbon credit bought represents the amount of carbon a company can emit acting as a cap on emissions. Companies and even regular individuals around the world can buy carbon credits by choosing an environmental project, paying to support that project and receiving their attestation.

Once Partanna provides attestation of their carbon credits to offset the building process they will be allowed to build 1,000 more homes over three years in The Bahamas.

Davis explained that this will come full circle as Partanna technology is forecast to become one of the environmental projects people can pay to support, generating approximately 260 of the highest-valued carbon credits on the market, per home.

Founders Rick Fox and Sam Marshall say the inspiration came from shared experiences of extreme weather events, Fox from his time growing up in The Bahamas, where tropical storms were a constant and Marshall who hails from California which is plagued with more frequent and widespread wildfires.

Davis said this was part of the country’s fight against climate change.

“We are not the polluters, not the ones emitting the carbon, and yet we are already suffering the worst impacts of climate change. We heeded our own call, and resolved to act to do whatever we could, to help avert a climate-based disaster.”

Davis said he was pleased that Rick Fox, a Bahamian, accepted his invitation to bring his industry home to The Bahamas.

The project will provide jobs for at least 100 Bahamians, and Partanna “will provide training in the new skill sets required to create the foundation of this new global industry, with The Bahamas leading the way.”