Sources: Aggregate Industries, Greenbelt, Md.; CP staff
Against a 2007 Greenbuild Expo backdrop, Aggregate Industries announced its Cool Climate Concrete and Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders program participation. Cool Climate Concrete, or C3, enables the producer to collect 50 cents per ton of supplementary cementitious material used in concrete mixes. SCM specification generates carbon offset credits by lowering the use of carbon dioxide-intensive portland cement. C3 is funded through Climate Trust, a nonprofit organization in Oregon that implements offsets for CO2 emissions in excess of the state's standard. Climate Trust retains a sustainable materials firm, Horst Inc., to audit carbon offsets and administer C3.

Aggregate Industries is the program's first major ready mixed producer and fifth industry participant in EPA Climate Leaders. Partners in the five-year-old Bush administration initiative set a companywide greenhouse gas reduction goal and measure progress through emissions monitoring. They identify themselves as corporate environmental leaders and strategically position their businesses as climate change policy unfolds. In addition to Aggregate Industries' sister operations, Holcim (US) and St. Lawrence Cement, other Climate Leaders participants are California Portland Cement and Lafarge North America.

"The EPA Climate Leaders program emphasizes our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," says Aggregate Industries' Derek Young, advisor for U.S. Corporate Social Responsibility. "Cool Climate Concrete [participation] underscores our goals of offsetting carbon emissions. We believe it is the hallmark of a responsible company program to address these issues."