Build With Strength to Help Colorado Comply with New State EPD Requirements

Effective January 1, 2025, Colorado will require Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for all state projects, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche. Build With Strength is partnering with the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association (CRMCA) to educate industry ready mix personnel on the details of the program. In addition, with the support of NRMCA’s recent EPA grant, Build With Strength, Pave Ahead and CRMCA will hold symposiums across Colorado to help ready mixed concrete producers comply with the new state requirements. (E-NEWS will provide details on the dates and locations of the symposiums.)

Matsche and CRMCA Executive Director Todd Ohlheiser recently sponsored the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) Colorado Chapter Generate 2024 Practice + Design conference held in Keystone, CO. This annual, multiday event brought together over 500 AIA members, allied members and industry professionals. The yearly education conference is a testament to the vitality of Colorado’s design community.

Over the course of two days Matsche presented the Top 10 Ways to Reduce Concrete’s Carbon Footprint and encouraged the use of Build With Strength’s performance-based specification review, NRMCA’s Carbon Calculator tool and consulting services to create low carbon concrete specifications in lieu of unnecessarily prescriptive language that impact the GWP reduction targets and goals of their clients’ projects. The Build With Strength and Pave Ahead platforms offer design teams a range of education, promotion and execution support. The meetings reinforced the concrete industry's proactive approach to sustainability and the essential role collaboration plays in driving forward low carbon initiatives, ultimately transforming the built environment for a greener future while promoting concrete as the building material of choice.

“Build with Strength affords us with a unique opportunity to reach groups and associations that we would not otherwise be able engage with. The resources that Build With Strength brings to the table provide incredible value,” said CRMCA’s Ohlheiser.

With the generous support of the ready mixed concrete industry, Build With Strength is recognized as a leading advocate; spearheading the effort to reduce and eliminate embodied carbon in buildings, roads and infrastructure.

For more information, contact Patrick Matsche at pmatsche@nrmca.org.