The Maryland Ready Mix Concrete Association, the Maryland Transportation Builders & Materials Association and the Maryland Asphalt Association held a joint conference late last month in Cambridge, MD, titled "Building Maryland Together." The program included a variety of educational, technical, political and industry related seminars as well as a discussion of the economic forecast for the state. NRMCA’s Lionel Lemay and Brian Killingsworth spoke at the conference on topics related to concrete sustainability.

Lemay took audience members through the maze of terminology and development steps for Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). EPDs are third-party verified (certified) reports published by product manufacturers that provide quality assured and comparable information regarding environmental performance of their products. EPDs are starting to appear in the U.S.; the upcoming LEED v4 Rating System and Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products is starting the demand for them. Lemay answered several questions from the audience regarding how EPDs may change the landscape, in a positive way, for concrete products when compared to other building material’s environmental footprint.

Killingsworth updated the activities of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub), specifically addressing utilizing data input variability for assessing risk associated with environmental and economic decisions for both concrete buildings and pavements, among other topics. After completing the overview of work that MIT has conducted, NRMCA Chairman Bill Childs of Chaney Enterprises, Gambrills, MD, discussed how results from MIT have been used to directly affect the concrete paving market in Maryland.

For more information about EPDs or implementing the results from the MIT CSHub, contact NRMCA’s Brian Killingsworth at bkillingsworth@nrmca.org or 830-438-2690.