Researchers gauge lower emission concrete, steel price sensitivities

Sources: The Climate Group, London; CP staff A global survey assesses construction and other industry stakeholder perspectives on two principal load-bearing materials produced at lower than normal levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Among respondents, 40 percent say they would be willing to pay a premium for emissions reductions of 25 percent or higher for concrete, while 47 percent would be…

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CarbonBuilt eyes new concrete plant deployments with Meta support

Sources: CarbonBuilt, Los Angeles; CP staff Dovetailing their participation in “Leadership and Green Growth,” a Climate Week New York City panel, officials of CarbonBuilt and Facebook host Meta Platforms announced a plan to broaden adoption of the former company’s Reversa binder and process technology, where carbon dioxide is sequestered in concrete and mix designs require lower than normal volumes of…

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EPA publishes Buy Clean construction materials label program primers

The Environmental Protection Agency Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention has outlined an implementation plan for a program and publicly accessible registry providing data on greenhouse gas emissions attending principal building and infrastructure project inputs. The EPA Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials will define parameters and thresholds informing the White House Federal Buy Clean Initiative, which…

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Paving the Way: Carbon Sequestration in Concrete to Mitigate Environmental Impact

Concrete, the most extensively used manmade material worldwide, contributes an estimated 8 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. With annual volume running 30 gigatonnes, concrete consumption is over 3.5 tonnes of per person. The majority of the GHG emissions (88.5 percent) emanate from production of portland cement, the essential ingredient in concrete. Carbon sequestration in concrete presents a promising avenue…

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EPA funding fuels NRMCA promotion of low carbon concrete

Sources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Alexandria, Va.; CP staff The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association has secured a $9.63 million Environmental Protection Agency Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Construction Materials and Products Program grant, enabling the group and its Build With Strength team to further educate the architectural and engineering communities on designing and specifying low carbon concrete.…

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ACPA, NPCA, PCI project garners nearly $10M EPA grant

Sources: National Precast Concrete Association, Carmel, Ind.; Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago; CP staff The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected a joint National Precast Concrete Association, Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute and American Concrete Pipe Association project to receive a $9.975 million grant in the Reducing Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Construction Materials and Products Program. One of 38 selected for nearly $160 million in…

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Holliday Rock partners with graphene developer for admixture testing

Sources: Rimere, Newport Beach, Calif.; CP staff Rimere, a developer of processes extracting high value compounds from natural gas, has entered a codevelopment agreement with California neighbor Holliday Rock, a key player in ready mixed, aggregate and asphalt production, to quantify the potential of graphene to improve concrete strength, elasticity, shrinkage, shielding and durability. Composed of a single layer of…

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GHG Inventory shows cement plant CO2 emissions’ positive trend

The latest Environmental Protection Agency Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks cites 2022 GHG loads of 5.489 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, a 1.3 percent increase from the prior year. The GHG Inventory factors emissions of CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride—all pegged for their global warming potential when released to…

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Reduced Carbon Concrete Consortium assists states’ FHWA grant pursuits

The American Concrete Pavement Association, Iowa State University-hosted National Concrete Pavement Technology Center and allies have formed the Reduced Carbon Concrete Consortium (RC3) to assist state departments of transportation and other qualifying entities eyeing grants under the just-announced Federal Highway Administration Low-Carbon Transportation Materials (LCTM) program. RC3 will provide DOTs technical assistance and facilitate contractor preparedness with critical next steps…

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EPA outlines 2029-2032 mixer, dump, day cab emissions standards

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claims avoidance of 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and $13 billion in net society benefits attributable to GHG Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3. If upheld after near-certain legal challenges, new thresholds in the final rule, measured against Phase 2 targets, will equate to CO2 emissions reduction levels of a) 8-40…

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