Cork’s evolution as a building material not only highlights its historical importance but underscores its role in the future of sustainable construction. As the industry moves toward energy-efficient and net-zero buildings, cork will continue to play a critical role in reducing carbon footprints, enhancing thermal insulation, and ensuring buildings are both environmentally friendly and cost-effective. With its renewable nature and durability, cork is not just a material of the past but a solution for the future.

That natural cork in your wine bottle? It does more than just preserve the quality and character of your wine. It preserves old-growth cork oak forests and a centuries-long way of life through sustainable harvesting of the bark. And it helps preserve the planet by naturally absorbing carbon, the greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. by Portocork.

As strange or absurd as it may seem, a bottle cork can reduce your refrigerator’s energy consumption. How is this possible? Placing a cork in the fridge takes up space inside the refrigerator, leaving less room for the air that the compressor has to cool. They help moderate the air by directing the cold towards the areas that need it the most evenly.

Clarissakork in Vorarlberg is a business manufacturing sustainable interior and lifestyle products from cork. It was therefore natural for the architects Bischof & Zündel to construct a sustainable building using cork, hemp, and timber to show that these natural products are ideal building materials.

The development comes at a time when food safety remains a global concern. Rapid and affordable detection methods like this cork-based sensor could help prevent harmful substances from reaching consumers and support regulatory efforts to maintain high standards in food production.

Cork, the spongy natural material that stops bottles and pads pinboards, received a Trump tariff exemption. The renewable material appears in products from purses and shoe soles to fishing rods. It comes from the bark of the cork oak tree, Quercus suber.