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Association & Industry News
NRMCA member CalPortland has been awarded the 2020 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Sustained Excellence Award by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy. The EPA presents the award to companies that have already received ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year recognition for a minimum of two consecutive years and have gone above and beyond the criteria needed to qualify for recognition.
Buildings
The first in a series of Build With Strength (BWS) webinars on the design and construction of concrete buildings was presented last week to more than 470 attendees, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Donn Thompson. The one-hour presentation held on April 1 titled Concrete Innovations clarified the true environmental impact of cement and concrete while identifying new products and manufacturing methods to address today’s environmental challenges. New production processes to significantly offset embodied carbon, innovative additives to enhance both plastic and hardened properties, as well as carbonation processes to absorb and permanently remove CO2 from the environment were also covered. Additional BWS webinars are scheduled every Wednesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time for the next seven weeks; the next in the series, Specifying Sustainable Concrete, is being held today, April 8. Click here for more information and the link to register (a recording of the first webinar is available at the BWS site as well). For more information, contact Lionel Lemay at llemay@nrmca.org or Donn Thompson at dthompson@nrmca.org. Chicago is a Top 10 city for LEED construction and NRMCA Producer member Ozinga Ready Mix Concrete is prepared to meet the market’s challenge. As a leading Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Program Operator for the concrete industry, NRMCA recently verified an EPD by Ozinga Ready Mix. The EPD reports the impacts for 50 different ready mixed concrete products produced at three plants in Illinois and one plant in Miami. Ozinga is the first concrete producer in the market area to achieve EPD verification. The EPD was developed by Athena Sustainable Materials Institute and verified by Sustainable Solutions Corporation. With environmental transparency criteria being discovered in LEED building construction documents and specifications, material suppliers are investing into disclosure reports, specifically environmental product declarations (EPD). To date, the North American ready mixed concrete industry, including material suppliers, have 75 verified EPDs with more than 20,000 products/mixes and is the leading material industry that reports environmental impacts. Integral to the Build With Strength campaign, NRMCA promotes Strength Through Transparency for member and industry competitiveness in the green building marketplace and the trends toward product and company transparency. NRMCA-verified EPDs can be found here. For support, training or program development, please contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138. Last week, NRMCA attended the virtual meeting of the ICC Fire Code Action Committee (FCAC) which served as the kickoff for the committee’s participation in the International Code Council’s 2021 code revision cycle. The scope of the FCAC includes review and enhancement of International Building Code (IBC) chapters 7,8,9,14 and 26, the International Fire Code (IFC), the ICC Performance Code and the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code (IWUIC). FCAC task groups will continue to meet throughout the next several months to review specific fire safety subjects and develop associated code proposals. NRMCA is engaged in reviewing topics impacting the concrete industry, including but not limited to types of construction, exterior wall systems, fire resistance, heavy timber tall buildings, wildfires and resiliency. Build With Strength, a coalition led by NRMCA, promotes standards advocacy to leverage policies promoting safety and resiliency, and help place more concrete. For more information on fire codes and standards advocacy efforts, contact Shamim Rashid-Sumar at ssumar@nrmca.org.
Government Affairs
On Friday, April 3, the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department began facilitating the loan programs authorized in the CARES Act, also known as Phase Three of the federal COVID-19 response. While the rollout is experiencing some predicable bumps with such a rapid implementation, Treasury and banks are working to ensure that hiccups are being addressed and loans are being processed as quickly as possible. NRMCA hosted a webinar on March 30 and sent an update discussing and providing guidance on these loan programs. NRMCA members were urged to speak with their lenders, tax professionals and lawyers immediately to determine their eligibility and apply for the loans. Click here for more information and additional guidance on these loan programs.
SEO
The 2020 Fleet Benchmarking Survey is completed by industry fleet managers and/or financial managers early each year, based on data gathered from the previous calendar year’s performance. This year’s form includes new questions on mixer drum composition, idle time and types of fuel being used. The Fleet Benchmarking Survey is used to establish industry benchmarking norms and procedures. Information gathered from the annual Fleet Benchmarking Survey is published in a full report in Concrete InFocus magazine each autumn. A shorter Executive Summary of the survey is also made available to all. The deadline for submitting completed entries to fleetbenchmark@nrmca.org is Friday, April 24. Click here for more information, the link to download the entry form and staff contact. The NRMCA Safety Contest & Benchmarking Survey has for years been a safety performance and incentive/award program aimed to foster safe practices at ready mixed concrete plants across the nation. The survey is a per-plant contest open to facilities operated by NRMCA member companies in good standing in 2019. Companies with more than one division are encouraged to distribute entry blanks to individuals responsible for keeping safety records at each plant location. Entry forms must be e-mailed to safetycontest@nrmca.org by Friday, April 24. Click here for more information, to access the download entry form link or staff contact. NRMCA’s Annual Safety Award acknowledges the significant contribution that safety work practices gives to the growth and success of individual companies and the ready mixed concrete industry as a whole. The NRMCA Annual Safety Award is presented to an individual or company whose actions represent the very highest in the advancement of safety in the ready mixed concrete industry. The award program is generously sponsored by the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau (TMMB). It may be presented to an individual whose single action or long-time commitment to safety and health in the ready mixed concrete industry exemplifies superior performance in the field of safety.
NRMCA’s Commitment to Environmental Excellence Awards competition offers ready mixed concrete producers national recognition for outstanding contributions to protecting the environment and maintaining sound management practice in their operations. This program salutes NRMCA Producer members that have not only met but surpassed governmental compliance measures and demonstrated a commitment to environmental excellence through plant and staff investment. NRMCA member companies producing ready mixed concrete from a fixed plant location in the U.S., its territories or Canada are eligible to enter. Awards will be determined upon individual plant merits. Winning entrants will be honored at the Awards Luncheon at NRMCA‘s ConcreteWorks this September in Denver. Winners will also be featured in a 2020 edition of NRMCA’s Concrete InFocus magazine along with the leading trade publication Concrete Products magazine. Entries and photos must be e-mailed to gmullings@nrmca.org by Friday, July 24. Click here for more information, to download the entry form and staff contact. For those down times at the plant, please consider showing your staff NRMCA’s latest addition to its Safety Series. It is FREE and covers all the necessary basics related to safety at a ready mixed concrete plant. There is a lot of activity at a ready mixed concrete plant; it is like a small city. Whether you are a plant operator, yardman, mechanic, concrete delivery professional or just a visitor, you have to pay attention to what you're doing and follow basic safety procedures at all times. This video covers plant specific safety, including plant vehicle traffic, wearing proper personal protective equipment, general plant safety signage, prevention of slips, trips, and falls, general plant safety inspections, lockout and tagout of power sources, plant housekeeping and much more. Click here to view or download the video. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org, Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org or Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrrmca.org. 
May 5, Free Promotion Webinars May 6, Build With Strength Webinar May 7, Concrete Pavement Webinar Series May 12, Concrete Paving Promotion Webinar Series May 13, Build With Strength Webinar May 13 – 15, Glendora, CA *Postponed May 14, Concrete Pavement Webinar Series May 19, Concrete Paving Promotion Webinar Series May 20, Build With Strength Webinar May 20, Nashville, TN May 21, Concrete Pavement Webinar Series May 26, Concrete Paving Promotion Webinar Series
Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. April 9, Concrete Pavement Webinar Series April 14, Free Promotion Webinars April 15, Build With Strength Webinar April 15 – 17, Indianapolis *Postponed April 16, Concrete Pavement Webinar Series April 17, Sweetwater, TN April 21, Free Promotion Webinars April 22, Build With Strength Webinar April 23, Concrete Pavement Webinar Series April 28, Free Promotion Webinars April 28 – May 1, New Orleans *Postponed April 29, Build With Strength Webinar April 30, Concrete Pavement Webinar Series 
Pavement
The first installment of NRMCA’s Concrete Pavement Education Series was a great success, with more than 430 individuals attending the Designing Concrete Parking Lots and Streets webinar, reports Senior Vice President, Local Paving, Phil Kresge. These weekly webinars focus on topics related to design, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of concrete pavements. The next program in the series, scheduled for Thursday, April 9, at 2 p.m. Eastern time, is Designing Concrete Industrial Pavements and will discuss proper pavement design per the recommendations of ACI 330.2R-17: Guide for the Design and Construction of Concrete Site Paving for Industrial and Trucking Facilities. Click here to register for the webinar. “In this time of mandatory social distancing, the Concrete Pavement Education Series provides you the opportunity to stay in front of your audience while following health and safety guidelines,” Kresge said. “By sharing the link, you can invite your contacts in the A/E and construction communities to register for the webinar. A courtesy follow-up e-mail or phone call after the program keeps you on their radar screen.” The webinars also provide American Institute of Architects (AIA) Elective Learning Units and/or Professional Development Hours (PDH) for continuing education requirements. Future programs include Soils 101: What to Know for a Successful Paving Project (April 16), Concrete Pavement Jointing Details (April 23) and Materials and Construction Specifications for Concrete Pavement Projects (April 30). Each webinar starts at 2 p.m. Eastern time and is free. For more information, go to paveahead.com/education or contact Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org. 
Business Advancement
The Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division is asking for businesses to comment/offer guidance as it develops and revises the compliance assistance tools, resource material and outreach strategies for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). It wants a national, inclusive dialogue to meet your company's needs. Participate by logging on to the new FFCRA Idea Scale website: https://ffcra.ideascale.com. The site will gather comments through Friday, April 10. This is your chance to make a difference for your company, your employees and for everyone else who falls under the FFCRA law. The new DOL/WHD Idea Scale website makes it easy to set up an account to participate; the information is worth a good look. You may also find specific links to DOL/WHD, on NRMCA’s Covid-19 Resources site. For more information, e-mail Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrmca.org. June 2, Free Promotion Webinars June 16 – 18, Nashville, TN – Sponsored by Tennessee Concrete Association July 14 – 16, Nashville, TN – Sponsored by TCA September 25 – 29, Denver October 20 – 22, Mendota Heights, MN November 17 – 19, Glendora, CA December 15, Charlotte, NC December 15 – 18, Phoenix Engineering
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