Speakers Selected for 2013 International Concrete Sustainability Conference

Speakers have been selected for the 8th annual International Concrete Sustainability Conference to be held May 6-8 in San Francisco. Over 60 world-renowned experts will present the latest developments related to design, specifying, manufacturing, testing, construction, maintenance and research of concrete as it relates to sustainability. Keynote speakers for the plenary sessions include:

• Dr. Michael Lepech, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, will discuss how innovations in the area of Virtual Infrastructure Management are leveraging the benefits of concrete technologies to reduce the impact of building and infrastructure construction.

• Francesca Desmarais, director of the 2030 Challenge for Products, Architecture 2030, will present an update on the Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products.

• Suneel Vanikar, team leader, pavement design and analysis team, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), U.S. Department of Transportation, will provide an overview of FHWA sustainability initiatives and programs.

• Caspar Wagner, Google Green Team Design and Construction Lead, Google, Inc., will participate in a panel discussion titled Transparency and Material Ingredient Disclosure: What Google is Doing to Keep its Buildings Healthy.

Examples of topics and speakers presenting during technical sessions include:

• Dr. Arash Noshadravan, postdoctoral associate with the Material Systems Laboratory (MSL) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will present Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Pavements Under Uncertainty and Variation.

• Dr. Liv Haselbach, associate professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, will present Removal of High Levels of Dissolved Zinc and Copper in Pervious Concrete.

• Dr. Dev Millstein, postdoctoral fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will present Cool Communities: The Benefit of Cool Pavements in CA Cities.

• Chris Erickson, CEO, Climate Earth, will present EPDs:  An Inside Look at the Keys to Successful Implementation.

• Ben Tymann, attorney, Greenberg Traurig, will present Navigating the Legal Obstacles on Your Road to Sustainability: Recent Developments in the Law.

• David Shook, associate structural engineer, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, will present Mapping a Structure’s Impact on the Environment: Case Studies.