Top LEED critic endorses ICC’s green code development

Sources: American High-Performance Buildings Coalition (AHPBC), New York; CP staff

A group of associations representing a wide range of building and construction industry stakeholders—and frequent critic of methods behind the development of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system—AHPBC issued a statement in support of the International Codes Council (ICC) transparent process for developing the 2015 International green Construction Code (IgCC) as it convened for its expert committee hearings in Memphis.

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Taylor Machine Works, Inc.

Taylor Machine Works, Inc.

Manufactures heavy-duty forklifts ranging from 16,000- to 125,000-lb. capacity—continuing a near 90-year history of engineering, building and servicing trucks for a variety of industrial applications. Backed by sales and service dealers located throughout the U.S. and Canada, the company provides 24/7 response through a full stock of replacement parts. 

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Housing rebound supports strong outlook for fiber cement products

Source: Freedonia Group, Cleveland

Demand in the U.S. for fiber cement products is forecast to increase 8.5 percent annually through 2017 to 2.9 billion sq. ft. (valued at $2.2 billion), according to Fiber Cement, a new study from market researcher Freedonia Group.

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ACI reorganizes 318 code around building system members, curtails cross references

Source: American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich.

ACI is finalizing ACI 318-14: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete, announcing at World of Concrete 2014 the streamlined document’s new orientation to engineers; more intuitive flow of requirements compared to earlier versions; and, centralized construction requirements in a single chapter.

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NPCA projects 6 percent growth in 2014 precast shipments

Source: National Precast Concrete Association, Carmel, Ind.

Based on data from its recently released Precast Industry Benchmarking Report and leading forecasters, NPCA projects U.S. producers’ shipments increasing this year to $16.8 billion from $15.9 billion in 2013, the 6 percent gain modest against higher overall construction growth in 2014.

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Bim, Erp Integration Key To Future Of Software For The Precast Industry

StructureWorks

Two acronyms go well together, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and BIM (Building Information Modeling). But what is the relationship between BIM & ERP? Why is it important to understand both? And what possible interest could more software have to a precaster? BIM and ERP each represent one half of the whole software automation picture as it relates to precast concrete manufacturing. Integrated and taken together, BIM & ERP will provide precast producers the design, production control and financial management tools they need to fully take advantage of the coming revolution in building construction.

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CSHub Investments’ Ripple Effect

A new roadmap shows how European Union cement interests, with much customer assistance, can clip carbon dioxide output from 1990 levels by 80 percent at mid-century. The ambitious goal fits the European Cement Association, based in Brussels—ground zero of carbon trading schemes, voluntary initiatives and regulatory pursuits aimed at net CO2 emissions reduction across the business and consumer landscape. It hinges on improvements in fuel- and energy-intensive cement milling, coupled with promotion of the energy or fuel efficiency inherent in concrete building and transportation slabs or structures.

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Feds fund project to integrate carbon metrics in building material databases

Researchers at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, have been awarded a $600,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop measurement and assessment tools to be integrated with building material databases and architectural design software to provide real-time, “on-the-fly” carbon footprint metrics.

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Environmental Product Declarations workshop dovetails ASTM C09 committee meetings

Sources: ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa.; CP staff

“An Introduction to Product Category Rules (PCR), Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and Other Aspects of Sustainable Process and Resilient Materials” will be held December 8 at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville (Fla.) Riverfront, host venue of ASTM Committee C09 on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates standards development meetings.

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