A brief history of Environmental Product Declarations and the arrival of EPD 3.0

Increasing demand for low carbon concrete, transparency, and digitization are driving a radical transformation in how EPDs are developed and used.  Industry demand for low carbon concrete and the critical need to measure reduced carbon metrics are driving radical change in the concrete industry, which increases monthly with new legislation, investor and commercial demand influencing construction materials production and specifications.…

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Blair Block starts up CarbonBuilt-equipped CMU production line

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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CarbonCure streamlines environmental product declaration preparation

Sources: CarbonCure Technologies, Halifax, Nova Scotia; CP staff CarbonCure Technologies has launched a namesake service, Express EPD, with which concrete producers can expedite preparation of verified environmental product declarations (EPD). It  streamlines the complex life cycle assessment process declarations require by automating much of the data collection. Concrete producers can generate accurate, mix-specific EPDs through a secure program at an accessible…

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Agency eclipses typical government pace with embodied carbon action

The U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration were set for center stage this year thanks to Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding and contract activity. Yet a sister agency with its $75 billion building and pavement contracting budget is stealing some of the thunder.  The General Services Administration is capturing attention with its Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Standards…

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