The NRMCA Sustainability Committee met just before the NRMCA Board of Directors meeting last week outside Las Vegas to address opportunities and challenges facing the concrete industry. Key initiatives undertaken by the committee include:

• NRMCA has submitted a pilot credit on resilient design that would provide design teams with points for designing and building to resiliency and durability requirements. 

• NRMCA is now an EPD Program Operator in order to assist its members meet new reporting requirements in LEED v4 and has verified its first concrete EPD with others in the process.

• A proposal to the RMC Research & Education Foundation to develop an Industry Average EPD and industry baselines in order to increase concrete’s competitiveness in LEED v4.

• A motion that directs NRMCA to promote the NRMCA Sustainable Concrete Plant Certification program as a responsible sourcing scheme in LEED v4 was unanimously approved by the Board.

• NRMCA is soliciting proposals to develop a guide to meeting the Materials Ingredient disclosure requirements in LEED v4.

State and Local Advocacy:

• Model legislation that would require insurance companies to provided insurance rate discounts to building and home owners who build to FORTIFIED standards.

• Model legislation that would require states and local jurisdictions to adopt life cycle cost analysis when contemplating investment in transportation infrastructure.

• A guide to streets and local roads that could be adopted by state departments of transportation as a guide for local jurisdictions.

• Model legislation that would require state and local jurisdictions to consider environmental life cycle assessment when considering investment in infrastructure projects.

• Strategies and tools to combat the Wood First initiative that proposes to legislate the use of wood in state funded projects essentially circumventing the free market system.