Sources: CarbonBuilt, Los Angeles; CP staff Childersburg, Ala.-based Blair Block is the first mover at commercial scale to adopt the carbon dioxide-capturing and -mineralizing technology of CarbonBuilt, enabling promotion of concrete masonry units whose embodied carbon characteristics are 70-100 percent lower than traditional blocks. The CarbonBuilt technology replaces most of the portland cement typically used in CMU mix designs with…
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Value Declaration
A visit with 2023 Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Chair Matt Ballain BY JOSEPHINE PATTERSON Matt Ballain, vice president and general manager of Coreslab Structures (INDIANAPOLIS), has become the chair of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute following a series of pivotal predecessor moves over the past decade. Among the deliverables are the formal reporting system for building and transportation product or structure shipments;…
Read MoreA new portal for Buy Clean era
We are into a second decade of covering ready mixed and manufactured concrete producer response to construction market catalysts driving Environmental Product Declaration preparation and submittals: The Architecture 2030 Challenge (2012), compelling proof of lower embodied carbon materials or products in project specifications, and the U.S. Green Building Council LEED v4 standard (2014-16), the first broad-based mechanism incentivizing suppliers, producers…
Read MoreConcrete Reinforcing Steel Institute revises Industry Wide EPD for rebar
The Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute, Schaumburg, Ill., has released Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for Fabricated Steel Reinforcement Bar, superseding a 2017 declaration. Aware of the increasing interest in transparent reporting of a construction product’s cradle-to-gate environmental performance, CRSI aims to demonstrate members’ sustainability leadership, underscored by their a) output of reinforcing bars of more than 97 percent recycled content, and…
Read MoreMeta Mix Model
Ozinga Ready Mix Concrete proves ideal partner as Facebook operator applies artificial intelligence to low-carbon mix designs The spotlight on buildings’ life cycle carbon dioxide emissions is driving recognition of Environmental Product Declaration-defined Product, Construction Process, Use and End-of-Life Stage benchmarks. After methodically lowering the Use Stage CO2 factor for its 14 operational, energy-intensive data centers in North America, Silicon…
Read MoreReport gauges building codes’ impact on embodied carbon in project specs
Sources: New Buildings Institute, Portland, Ore.; CP staff The most recent New Buildings Institute (NBI) report offers language to incorporate embodied carbon requirements in codes, and explains the need for jurisdictions to address such criteria for materials or products with the highest carbon dioxide emissions factors. “Lifecycle GHG Impacts in Building Codes” presents potential CO2 benchmarks or thresholds for ready mixed…
Read MoreSurface Tech pens EPD for Juno C33 SCM, fine aggregate
San Diego concrete materials and reinforcement fiber specialist Surface Tech has completed the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) validation for Juno C33, an advanced alternative supplementary cementitious/fine aggregate material (SCM). The EPD serves as a transparent, objective report detailing what a product is made of and how it impacts the environment across its entire life cycle. The independently verified and registered…
Read MoreIndustry-Wide Environmental Product Declaration matches latest standards
With data from 155 producers operating 1,954 plants, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association has published a third version of its industry average or industry-wide environmental product declaration (IW-EPD). The document functions as a national proxy for the bulk of concrete in residential, commercial and public construction, and complies with the latest Product Category Rule for Concrete, released earlier this year.
Read MoreCalculator performs life cycle assessment for slag cement concrete
Sources: Slag Cement Association (SCA), Farmington Hills, Mich.
SCA has posted for free download a calculator with which concrete producers can quantify and interpret cradle-to-gate life cycle assessments (LCA) reflecting the environmental impact of mixtures with and without slag cement. Calculations are based on the industry-average Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for ready mixed concrete that incorporates industry-average EPDs for slag cement and portland cement in the United States. The calculator also allows users to evaluate how different concrete mixtures affect whole building impacts based on a typical case study project.
Read MoreNRMCA releases Industry-Wide Environmental Product Declaration 2.0
The second version of the NRMCA Industry-Wide (IW) Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and Benchmark (Industry Average) Report discloses production impacts of 72 concrete mixes with 2,500–8,000 psi design strength, covering the bulk of product used in residential, commercial and public construction. The updated IW EPD is prepared from 88 producers operating 2,500 ready mixed plants, and includes a wide range of mix designs for each strength class, from 100 percent portland cement mixes to those with 50-plus percent fly ash or slag cement factor.
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