The February/March 2010 issue of SNAP, the sister publication to www.sweets.com and a leading resource for architects, celebrates CalStar Fly Ash Brick™ and Fly Ash Paver™ in its Top Products List.

Mouse over cover article: Top Building Products. CalStar product report on p. 41.

Amid buzz about algae biofuel and electric cars, some start-ups hope to use “green” technology to reinvent more mundane products like bricks and cement.

CalStar Products Inc. plans to open a factory next month to make bricks from fly ash, a byproduct of coal burning. It claims to use roughly 85% less energy than traditional clay brick manufacturing, with an equivalent reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions.

Read the rest of “Putting Green Technology Into Bricks” on WSJ.com

Silicon Valley has been the center of a lot of tech innovation. And at first glance, it seems an unlikely place to redo the common brick.

But earlier this week I spent time at the Newark, Calif.-based R&D facility of CalStar Products, a VC-backed startup that uses a chemical process to make a “green brick” that the company says requires about 90% less energy and generates 90% less CO2 during production than traditional clay bricks.

Read the rest of “Green Bricks a Natural in Silicon Valley” on pehub.com