NRMCA Senior Vice President of Sustainability presented Innovations that Enhance the Sustainable Attributes of Concrete-based Materials at the fourth International Congress on Ceramics held last week in Chicago. A ceramic is defined as an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling and can have crystalline or partly crystalline structure (such as porcelain or cement) or may be amorphous (such as glass). Attendees at the conference include researchers and practitioners in the field of ceramics and since concrete is made with cement, many are interested in innovative applications of concrete. Lemay was an invited speaker for the infrastructure track at the conference.

Lemay presented advances in products such as pervious concrete, high strength concrete, self-consolidating concrete, flowable fill and roller-compacted concrete along with other conventional concretes that can enhance the sustainability of the built environment. He also discussed recycling efforts of the concrete industry, including cementitious materials, aggregates and water. Efforts to reduce carbon footprint of concrete, including high volume replacement of cement with fly ash and slag cement were discussed. Initiatives such as LEED, the Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products, and other standards that challenge product manufacturers to measure and track carbon footprint and other environmental impacts were explained. The presentation also included a brief review of research being conducted at the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub designed to quantify and reduce the environmental footprint of concrete.

For more details, contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org or 847-918-7101. For information regarding the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, visit www.rmc-foundation.org.