The Athena Institute, a long-time partner and verifier in the NRMCA EPD program, has developed an online tool that calculates the environmental impacts of concrete mixes that can be used to generate an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). Athena works with concrete producers to customize the calculator with plant specific energy use and supply chain data. Once that’s done, a producer can simply enter concrete mix details and the calculator generates environmental impacts and allows a producer to:

• Explore and compare mix designs to industry average and NRMCA benchmarks;

• Identify environmental "hot spots" to help improve concrete mixes;
• Communicate to customers the environmental footprint of custom mixes;

• Generate custom EPDs  easily and inexpensively; and
• Show design teams how a custom mix affects the LCA of a whole building.

Benefits of this new tool for concrete producers include:

• Helping customers earn LEED points;

• Identifying the "greenest" mixes;

• Demonstrating sustainability leadership; and

• Generate credible results.