NRMCA Updates Environmental Impacts of Concrete in Support of Green Building Initiatives

With support of industry members, NRMCA has updated its industry average environmental impacts for concrete, and continues its leadership position when responding to product transparency within green building standards. The second version of the NRMCA Industry-Wide (IW) Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and Benchmark (Industry Average) Report discloses the environmental impacts of concrete manufacturing for a wide range of concrete products. The updated IW-EPD includes additional member companies, concrete plants and concrete mixes. Similar to the original, the new EPD lists impacts for a range of compressive strengths utilizing various percentages of SCMs, covering most concrete used in residential, commercial and public construction. Additionally, lightweight concrete mix designs have been added in the new version. In total, the IW-EPD now includes 88 companies, 2,519 plants and 72 mixes offering enhanced data for baselines and resulting in significant national coverage and production.

The Benchmark (Industry Average) Report presents the impacts for average concrete mixtures at the national level and in eight different regions of the country. This is applicable where companies want to compare their product-specific environmental impacts to industry averages.

The reports were developed in collaboration with industry members, the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute and third party verified by NSF International with the purpose in responding to green building standards containing product transparency criteria, such as LEED v4, Green Globes and the International Green Construction Code. This effort is another example where the ready mix industry can claim a leadership position in transparency when comparing to other product categories.

 

 As part of the Build with Strength campaign, NRMCA promotes member and industry competitiveness in the green building marketplace and the trends toward product and company transparency.