Earlier this month, various national governmental agencies including the EPA, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and White House Office of Science Technology Policy hosted a daylong meeting of various Midwest stakeholders interested in shaping the future of low-carbon concrete construction in Chicago. The event was organized by the Rocky Mountain Institute and the National Resources Defense Council and introduced a national tiered pledge program that encourages both providers as well as buyers of ready mixed concrete materials to commit to lower carbon strategies.
NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Donn Thompson introduced the Association’s Industry Wide Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Program as well as current and planned updates to companion resources documenting global warming potential benchmarks. Other industry presenters included Larry Rowland, Heidelberg Materials, who announced its commitment to the pledge program; Scott Kelly and Ruth De Ni from Producer member Ozinga Bros. who described company efforts in supplying low carbon concrete and Benton Johnson, a structural engineer from the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill who discussed his firm's commitment to design with low carbon concrete.
A second panel featured representatives from the Urban Land Institute, the General Services Administration and two private developers who discussed their investigation and commitment to lower carbon concrete strategies from a buyers perspective.
NRMCA’s selection for a grant of $9.63 million of EPA funding available under the Inflation Reduction Act was also discussed. The funding will dramatically increase available ready mixed concrete EPDs, education, improvements to automation tools, further refinement of data and benchmarks resulting in more accurate comparisons across more regions.
For more information, contact Donn Thompson at dthompson@nrmca.org or 224-627-3933.
For more information on the two remaining low carbon workshops, contact Brandon Wray for the August 27 workshop in Los Angeles and Frank Mruk for the October 2 workshop in Boston.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association