When we think of things that release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we often imagine cars and factories. But a huge emitter of CO2 that's often overlooked is cement.

For every metric ton of cement produced, there's an equal amount of CO2 that's released into the atmosphere. Every year, more than 4 billion metric tons of cement are produced, accounting for around 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions. To put that in context, if the cement industry were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of CO2 in the world.

"Cement is kind of the glue that holds concrete together, and concrete is used more than any other material on the planet other than water," said Tom Schuler, President and CEO of Solidia Technologies.

Since 2007, Schuler and his team have been working to create a green cement to reduce the amount of CO2 the material releases into the environment.

"When you make Solidia cement, we are cutting the CO2 emissions at least by 30%," said Vahit Atakan, chief science officer at Solidia. "And when we cure Solidia cement, when we make the concrete, we add an additional 20, 30% of CO2, we consume it during curing. So this adds up to 50, 60%. And depending on the formulations, our CO2 savings can go up to 70%."

To find out more about how Solidia is reinventing the cement and concrete industry to create a cleaner building material, check out the video above.