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.
Read MoreSources: World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Geneva; CP staff
WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative’s (CSI) new Product Category Rules (PCR) for unreinforced concrete offer producers a common methodology to prepare Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for their mixes. CSI membership includes all multinational companies with integrated North American operations: Argos, CRH, Cemex, GCC, Heidelberg, Holcim, Lafarge, Taiheiyo, Titan and Votorantim.
Read MoreSource: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.
NRMCA has become an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Program Operator, a designation enabling it to help members meet new requirements in LEED v4, International Green Construction Code (IgCC) and the Architecture 2030 Challenge for Products. EPDs are third-party verified reports published by product manufacturers that provide quality assured and comparable information regarding the environmental performance of their product.
Read MoreSources: CP staff; Command Alkon Inc., Birmingham, Ala.
COMMANDoptimize, offering real-time fleet and plant management to improve ready mixed concrete dispatch operations’ efficiency and profitability, was center stage at the 2011 Command Alkon Customer Conference.
Read MoreSource: Equity Partners CRB, Easton, Md.
Concrete Building Products has retained Equity Partners to help the company locate a suitable partner or buyer. Until 2010, when its plant was shut down, Concrete Building Products was a leading provider of precast hollowcore planks, solid slabs, stairs and other precast concrete products to the construction industry in Florida.
Read MoreSources: Oldcastle Precast Inc., Atlanta; CP staff
By Don Marsh
Oldcastle Precast is the main suitor in an eight-month bankruptcy proceeding for Duratek Precast Technologies, with headquarters office and wall panel production operation in Brooksville and Bartow, Fla. Acquired for an undisclosed sum, the select Duratek assets add a business specializing in the design, production, and installation of site and DOT walls, sound barriers, hurricane hangars, safe harbor marinas, and building systems for residential, commercial and industrial markets.
Read MoreSources: Alpha Natural Resources, Abingdon, Va.; CP staff
A major coal producer has acquired a 10.3 percent position in Alexandria, Va.-based Ceratech Inc., whose Ekkomaxx technology can yield concrete binding agents with performance characteristics reportedly matching ASTM C150 Types I–V powder.
Alpha Natural Resources can increase its Ceratech stake to 28.3 percent under certain future terms. It becomes the second coal producer to invest in prospective concrete technology offsetting carbon dioxide emissions from either portland cement production or fossil fuel-fired power generation. In April 2010, market leader Peabody Energy took a $15 million interest in Calera Corp., whose calcium carbonate precipitation processes—applied to power plants’ flue gas streams—are netting concrete-grade fine aggregate.
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