The Oregon Concrete & Aggregate Producers Association (OCAPA) 2025 Winter Workshop was held recently in Salem, OR, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche who attended the event. The workshop allowed OCAPA members to learn about a variety of issues affecting the ready mix industry, including the state of Oregon’s economy and upcoming legislative priorities to updates from key state and federal agencies.
OCAPA President Rich Angstrom and Andy Hyland, area general manager for Heidelberg Materials and OCAPA Board chairman, provided opening remarks while keynote speaker NRMCA Executive Vice President, Structures and Sustainability, Lionel Lemay spoke on the state of the concrete and construction industry in Oregon and nationally. Lemay also discussed NRMCA’s commitment to sustainability, decarbonization and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) along with its role in creating industrywide benchmarking and setting baselines generally considered the standard that GWP (Global Warming Potential) reductions are measured against.
Matsche moderated a panel discussion titled Achieving Low Carbon Concrete. The panel was a first for the Winter Workshop. It included local leaders who have achieved Low Carbon Concrete (LCC) in their projects: Ignacio Cariaga, commercial sustainability director, Heidelberg Materials; Chris Chatto, principal, ZGF Architects and Cary Watters, sustainability procurement program manager, City of Portland, who discussed how their projects achieved LCC, and the collaboration and procedures used in meeting their projects' GWP reduction goals. (Seen here are, from left to right, Matsche, Watters, Cariaga and Chatto.)
A robust group of speakers from both the public and private sectors presented on subjects that included HR compliance, clean diesel emissions, the final silica rule, and Oregon Department of Transportation’s current and future projects. Crystal Howard of Crystal Waters Consulting provided an economic update and Professor Dr. Jason Weiss, Oregon State University, provided insights on sustainable concrete.
The Build With Strength platform is a leader in supporting structural engineers, architects, end users and specifiers in achieving low carbon, high-performance concrete. For more information, contact Patrick Matsche at pmatsche@nrmca.org or 415-672-5275.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association