Sources: American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich.; CP staff
The American Concrete Institute has published Low-Carbon Concrete—Code Requirements and Commentary, one of the most authoritative references to date for public and private construction parties tracking carbon dioxide emissions associated with structural material specifications. ACI Committee 323 – Low-Carbon Code’s premier deliverable provides cast-in-place slab or structural element guidance for mixes of 2,500-8,000 psi compressive strength and reduced global warming potential (GWP) metrics. Committee 323 members confine the scope according to compressive strength and GWP benchmark data availability, noting that forthcoming versions will be broader as additional data is captured—potentially bringing precast, tremie and auger-cast concrete, plus shotcrete and unit masonry into the Code.
“Standards for lowering carbon in the built environment have been difficult to define and this Code represents a giant leap forward,” says New Jersey Institute of Technology Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Committee 323 Chair Matthew Adams. “It provides references for various structures so that the guidelines can be applied to any project. Committee 323 members did a great deal of work to produce this Code, and it is just a beginning, as future versions will provide even more guidance to everyone designing and building with reduced-carbon concrete.”
ACI 323 employs a carbon budget approach and emphasizes the use of Environmental Product Declarations for benchmarking, aiming to standardize methodologies for reducing carbon emissions associated with concrete construction. The document can be adopted as is or used in combination with a structural design or low-carbon material code. Principal chapters are Concrete Mixture GWP, Buildings, Pavement and Hardscape, Bridges and Other Structures. After a formal Low-Carbon Concrete – Code Requirements unveiled early this month during the ACI Convention in Philadelphia, Committee 323 will announce a schedule of seminars to educate concrete practitioners and other stakeholders on the new Code.
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