Industry Carries Concrete Torch At 2007 Greenbuild

Ensuring delivery of a strong environmental message and demonstration of how concrete building and pavement apply to the USGBC’s widely embraced LEED rating system, a contingent of national material and product operators and five trade groups participated in the 2007 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, Nov. 7-9 in Chicago

Sources: CP staff; U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, D.C.
Ensuring delivery of a strong environmental message and demonstration of how concrete building and pavement apply to the USGBC’s widely embraced LEED rating system, a contingent of national material and product operators and five trade groups participated in the 2007 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, Nov. 7-9 in Chicago. Expo attendees noted demonstrations or announcements from:

  • National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute, which deployed water tank-style displays to demonstrate pervious and permeable paving methods, both holding LEED point value.
  • Holcim (US) Inc., St. Lawrence Cement and Aggregate Industries announcing a call for Holcim Awards/North American Region entries, plus expanded participation in two climate change programs (companion item below).
  • Portland Cement Association, advancing the recently adopted “Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World” message releasing urban heat island effect study findings favoring concrete pavement (companion item below).
  • National Concrete Masonry Association and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, providing information on architectural possibilities, plus thermal efficiency and site-waste reduction factors, tied to specification of block or precast walls and load-bearing members.
  • Oldcastle Architectural, promoting new permeable pavement units and single-wythe structural CMU with water leakage control. Other national operators showing premium concrete pavement and wall products were Hanover Architectural and Wausau Tile.

Staged at the McCormick Place Convention Center, the event drew in excess of 20,000, a 30-plus percent increase over the 2006 Greenbuild in Denver. In a keynote leading into the first full Expo day at this year’s event, former President Bill Clinton told a gathering of 8,000 that where climate change and curtailing greenhouse gases are concerned, “We don’t know how much carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced because we have only started to try.”