Build With Strength Holds Educational Symposium in Washington State

Build With Strength and the Washington Aggregates & Concrete Association (WACA) recently hosted a multi-day education event focused on state legislators, code agencies, internal member companies, the AEC community and industry influencers along with general contractors and finishers/placers at a roundtable event titled Low Concrete Symposium, Addressing Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment.

The event opened with an aggregate and producer open forum where industry experts shared emerging trends and statewide challenges along with ideas and areas where support is needed. Local ready mixed producers covered challenges around enhanced e-ticketing and haul hub portals as well as the timeline for statewide rollout. The day concluded with a guided workshop for WACA members to review RCA and county permitting requirements with guidance on working through local jurisdictional challenges.

Day Two included a panel discussion on Measuring Carbon: LCA and EPD Considerations featuring industry leaders. Panelists discussed how these tools drive transparency, inform sustainable decisions and support the construction industry’s journey toward carbon reduction goals. NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche led a panel that included members of the Lower Carbon Concrete Taskforce that presented its Lower Carbon Concrete Guide.

WACA’s Cory Shaw led a panel discussion that included NRMCA’s Tiffany Reed-Villareal and state legislator Rep. Davina (Williams) Duerr, chair of the Environment & Energy, and Transportation Committee. Ms. Duerr asked NRMCA members to share their experience in decarbonizing their projects and opportunities to collaborate on future legislation. “I am going to ask you to help me understand the challenges we face,” she said.

Keynote Speaker Anthony Huey brought the day’s session to a close with an inspiring talk that focused on how to weave our stories and create compelling narratives to communicate facts memorably, thereby better telling the industry's story.

The highlight of the three-day event was the 2025 Washington State Excellence in Concrete Awards. With 30 submissions in 11 diverse categories, the ready mixed concrete industry was well represented. “I was honored to be a judge," Matsche said. "We are making great progress in the scale and type of successful projects that have embraced the challenge to decarbonize the built environment.”

Friday’s placers/finishers event was a hands-on training focused on contractors, subcontractors, and concrete finishers/placers. Matsche's colleague, PaveAhead’s Greg Halsted and WACA held the event at the Cement Masons Local 528 Training Center at the South Seattle College Georgetown Campus. The goal was to help concrete finisher crews and contractors effectively place and handle concrete mix designs featuring Portland-Limestone Cement (PLC) and other supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs).

NRMCA and Build With Strength thanks all the folks who made the event possible: WACA’s Cory Shaw and Mary Bauer; Ignacio Cariaga, Heidelberg Materials; Alex Collins, CalPortland/American Concrete Institute Washington Chapter; Debalina Ghosh, CRH Americas; Diane Warner, NCC; Don Davies, Davies-Crooks; Tom Van Dam, WJE; Jack Cove, WAP; Bill Larson, PNW Building Resilience Coalition, PNBRC; David Landrey, MASCO; Kelly Alexander, Euclid Chemicals; Steve Reed, Washington Department of Transportation (retired); Kevin Adel, MSHA; Robert Cavaliero, E5 Inc.; Ryan Zakerski, WDOT; Brandon Hundley, HaulHub; Logan Davidson, Geographic Solutions and NRMCA members Miles Sand and Gravel, Stoneway Concrete, CalPortland and Heidelberg Materials. (Seen here, from left to right, are Bill Larson, Debalina Ghosh, Cory Shaw, Davina (Williams) Duerr, Ignacio Cariaga and David Landrey.)

Thanks to the generous support of the ready mixed concrete industry, Build With Strength is recognized as a leading advocate, spearheading the effort to reduce and eliminate embodied carbon in buildings, roads and infrastructure. The platform also supports structural engineers, architects, end users and specifiers in achieving low-carbon, high-performance concrete. For more information, contact Patrick Matsche at pmatsche@nrmca.org or 415-672-5275.