Promotion Team Battles Concrete Blind Spot in New Hampshire

Print this Article | Send to Colleague

One day after Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary, a team of concrete industry professionals showed up in force at a local USGBC Chapter event in the Granite State. Jon Kuell, executive director of the Northern New England Concrete Promotion Association, Ray Shannon with Lehigh Cement, Tim Latham with Kingston Red-T-Mix and NRMCA Northeast Senior National Resource Director Doug O’Neill attended a recent event at a newly built LEED Silver Hampton Inn & Suites in Exeter.

The presentation was an overview of all that went into completing this four story, 111 room, 73,000 square foot hotel. The design team even used a white colored material for the roof in order to obtain the LEED Credit for Reducing the Heat Island Effect (Roof). What was amazing to the concrete representatives in the crowd was the total lack of thought regarding the parking lot, O'Neill said. This LEED Silver hopeful site used asphalt for the parking lot thus forfeiting the opportunity to take advantage of the LEED Credit for Reducing the Heat Island Effect (Non-Roof) by using a light colored material like concrete. When asked about this obvious oversight, the design team representative admitted that she never considered using concrete. She then listed off several common misperceptions designers in the Northeast seem to have about concrete, including that it costs too much and that concrete can’t handle the New England weather. The concrete team was well equipped to address those concerns and is looking forward to being asked back for a future concrete-related presentation.

For more information, contact Doug O’Neill at doneill@nrmca.org.