Clarke Snell's area of focus has been research, development, and low-carbon footprint building systems. Initially, his focus was on site-harvested or recycled materials, but in recent years, he has been looking at industrial materials, and most notably,  lowering the environmental footprint of concrete. With a team at University of North Carolina Charlotte, he has been working to integrate a new material, geopolymer cement concrete, into an innovative building envelope system that utilizes existing  precast concrete technology.