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Association & Industry News
Join NRMCA, Build With Strength and Pave Ahead for Concrete Innovations 2023. Concrete Innovations provides outstanding opportunities to promote your products and services. By becoming a sponsor for the Learning Center and Award Program you will enhance your visibility and demonstrate your dedication to concrete innovation and sustainability. Your organization will be promoted in conference marketing materials, website, e-mails and social media. Researchers, academics, students, engineers, architects, contractors, policy makers, public works officials, concrete producers, material suppliers and concrete industry professionals are invited to attend and present at Concrete Innovations. Visit www.concreteinnovations.com for more information or download the sponsorship brochure. For more information, contact Lionel Lemay at llemay@nrmca.org. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Concrete Sustainability Hub (MIT CSHub) recently released its February 2023 newsletter. This edition features details on a new CSHub short video series; how the U.S. pavement network can be made carbon neutral by 2050 and more. Click here for more information on the MIT CSHub. To subscribe to the monthly newsletter, please contact CSHub Communications Administrator Andrew Paul Laurent. The RMC Research & Education Foundation sponsors the MIT CSHub. 
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, brought together AIA leaders, chapter executives and chapter staff across regions. Seen here are, left to right. NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Frank Mruk who is also the president of AIA's Rhode Island chapter; Charles McKinney, chief of design for the New York City Parks Department; Ruben Ramales, AIA Queens executive director; Heather Philip-O’Neal, AIA 2022-23 treasurer candidate, and Susan Chin, Design Connects principal and past AIA vice president. Political commentator James Carville was the keynote speaker. #AIALeadss23 urges the reintroduction in the House and introduction in the Senate of the Resilient AMERICA Act to increase allocations for FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure & Communities to help mitigate the effects of future natural disasters. The Build With Strength program is a leader in supporting resilient design. For more information, contact Frank Mruk at fmruk@nrmca.org. SEO
The Safety Contest & Benchmarking Survey has for years been a safety performance and incentive/award program aimed to foster safe practices at ready mixed concrete plants across the nation. The survey is a per-plant contest open to facilities operated by NRMCA member companies in good standing in 2022. Companies with more than one division are encouraged to distribute entry blanks to individuals responsible for keeping safety records at each plant location. Entries must be e-mailed to safetycontest@nrmca.org by Friday, April 7. Click here for more information and to download the entry form. The staff contact is Gary Mullings. 
Buildings
NRMCA’s Build With Strength initiative sponsored a 20x30 exhibit and three separate education events at this year’s International Builders Show held in Las Vegas from January 31 through February 2. All showcased the unique advantages concrete can provide as a viable alternative to stick frame construction. Attendance at the show returned to levels not seen since 2008, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Donn Thompson.
Last week, NRMCA participated in the 2023 Kentucky Concrete Association Annual Meeting and Winter Convention in Louisville. Shamim Rashid-Sumar, senior vice president, codes and standards, presented on How NRMCA’s Codes and Standards Team Advocates for the Concrete Industry during the convention’s education session. The presentation focused on the impact NRMCA’s advocacy efforts have in building and fire safety codes and standards as well as current sustainability initiatives at the state and federal levels. Other session speakers included Angela Folkestad, executive director at the American Concrete Pavement Association, who presented on Low Carbon Concrete – Improving Concrete Quality and Kentucky Secretary of Transportation Jim Gray who updated attendees on state transportation projects. For more information on NRMCA's codes and standards advocacy initiatives, contact Shamim Rashid-Sumar at ssumar@nrmca.org. NRMCA recently verified a system-level Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) program for Maryland-based Producer member Schuster Concrete. The EPD is for a portable batch plant operating in Washington, DC, and is the first EPD for a portable plant produced under the newly-published Product Category Rule (PCR) for Concrete v2.2 (including deviation) by NSF International, the first PCR standard to include portable plants. The new PCR can be downloaded from the NSF PCR webpage. The EPD was developed in consultation with Climate Earth and based on its ClimateCLARITY software tool. The tool integrates LCA impacts within batch operating software to generate EPDs when desired. The software tool was reviewed and verified by Industrial Ecology Consultants. The underlying life cycle data for the plant and EPD were reviewed and verified by Ecoform, a verifier in NRMCA’s EPD program. Public access to the EPD is available on the NRMCA EPD webpage and is listed as NRMCA EPD: 20083 Schuster Concrete. This EPD reports the impacts for ready mixed concrete from one portable plant operating in Washington, DC. For more information, contact Matthew Lemay at mlemay@nrmca.org.
Earlier this month, NRMCA’s Pave Ahead and Build With Strength teams presented at the Utah Ready Mixed Concrete Association/ACI Intermountain 2023 Concrete Conference hosted by ACI Intermountain Chapter’s Tammy Meldrum and URMCA’s Brad Stevenson at the Davis Conference Center in Layton. More than 400 industry professionals attended, including developers, the state department of transportation, paving engineers, structural engineers, architects, contractors, and ready mix concrete and cement producers. (Seen here are, at left, Terrance Savage, a vice president at Geneva Rock Products, along with Altaview Concrete COO Scott Reynolds.) NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche; Senior Vice President, Codes and Standards, Shamim Rashid-Sumar and Executive Vice President, Pavement, Brian Killingsworth were among the presenters who focused on sustainable concrete within concrete paving, concrete construction and concrete codes and standards. For more information, contact Patrick Matsche at pmatsche@nrmca.org or 415-672-5275. 
The 2023 Fleet Benchmarking Survey is filled out by industry fleet managers and/or financial managers early each year, based on data gathered from the previous calendar year’s performance. This year’s form includes new questions on mixer drum composition, idle time and types of fuel being used. The survey is used to establish industry benchmarking norms and procedures. Information gathered is published in a full report in Concrete InFocus magazine each autumn. A shorter Executive Summary of the survey is also made available to all. The deadline to e-mail entries via fleetbenchmark@nrmca.org is Friday, April 21. Click here for more information and to download the survey. The staff contact is Gary Mullings. 
Pavement
NRMCA Senior Vice President, Local Paving, Phil Kresge recently presented at this year’s MdQI Conference in Baltimore. His presentation, Embodied Carbon of Materials and Whole Building Life Cycle, examined the embodied carbon associated with the manufacture of concrete and the importance of considering operational and use phase emissions attributed to concrete pavement throughout its service life. Kresge also described the cement and concrete industry’s efforts to reduce concrete carbon footprint, including the Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality and NRMCA’s role in developing Environmental Products Declarations (EPD’s) for concrete. Kresge’s participation was facilitated by Maryland Ready Mixed Concrete Association (MRMCA) Executive Director Tom Evans. The program elicited several questions and comments from attendees during the Q&A portion of the session as well as from individuals who stopped by the MRMCA’s tabletop exhibit. For more information, contact Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org. 
Learning & Development
On Saturday, March 11, from 9:15 to 11:15 a.m., the Workforce Development Committee will meet at NRMCA's Annual Convention at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. All are welcome. The meeting’s focus will center on how to help solve the mixer driver shortage. Additional discussion will include an update on NRMCA’s professional development courses, handouts being produced to support frontline supervisors and the annual compensation survey. Click here for more information. The staff contact is Eileen Dickson. *And save the date - the Workforce Development Committee will hold its annual 2-day meeting in Chicago, April 25-26. Details will follow soon.
For help registering or more information, please contact Jeffrey Bowers at jbowers@nrmca.org or 703-706-4835. Calendar
Please note that e-mail and direct registration links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's website. February 20 - 21, San Juan, Puerto Rico February 21 - 23, Nashville, TN March 10 - 13, Las Vegas, NV March 14 - 18, Las Vegas, NV March 21 - 23, Nashville, TN March 21 - 24, Columbus, OH *Sold Out March 28 - 30, Dallas April 4 - 6, Orlando, FL April 11 - 13, Carmel, IN April 18 - 20, Nashville, TN April 18 - 20, Oklahoma City April 18 - 20, Los Angeles April 25 - 27, Manchester, NH May 9 - 11, Orlando, FL May 16 - 19, Albany, OR May 16 - 18, Online Course May 23 - 25, Manchester, NH June 6 - 8, Orlando, FL June 20 - 22, Manchester, NH September 29 - October 3, Nashville, TN October 11 - 13, Centennial, CO November 7 - 9, Charlotte, NC November 28 - 30, Orlando, FL December 12 - 15, Orlando, FL 
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