It is commonly held that the very best leaders are those that lead by example. And so it comes as no surprise that CMTA Engineers recently completed its new office in Lexington, KY, to LEED Platinum standards using insulating concrete forms (ICFs). CMTA secured all 35 of the available Energy & Atmosphere related credits with its design for the new building. To anyone who has directly pursued LEED certification on a project, there is keen awareness of the magnitude of this accomplishment.

NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Gregg Lewis explains that, "installing state of the art mechanical systems like CMTA did with its geothermal wells and heat pump makes sense when you have a building envelope that performs the way ICFs do. The thermal bridging and otherwise leaky envelope that a wood frame building typically results in make the investment in systems like geothermal far less effective."

CMTA is one of the leading proponents for Net Zero Energy Schools – a trend that the Kentucky school systems appear to be leading. Its work is noteworthy in its "system approach" where multiple elements of a building work together seamlessly toward a stated goal; in this case: the highest possible energy performance. Lewis explains that "CMTA’s example is one worth emulating and points the way for our industry to show off the strength of concrete systems on the way toward the next generation of high performance buildings." Lewis emphasizes that "if NRMCA’s members and affiliates want to address the loss of market share we have seen over the past 8-10 years in the low to mid-rise construction market, we are going to have to identify the parties that default to building with wood and show them a credible path toward designing and building better and more cost-effective concrete structures."

For more information, contact Gregg Lewis at glewis@nrmca.org.