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Buildings
NRMCA Producer member Chaney Enterprises is the first to retroactively add ready mixed concrete plants to the NRMCA industry average environmental product declaration (IW-EPD). The action resulted from the company's November 2020 purchase of Richmond, VA-based GreenRock Materials. The added plants are in Virginia as follows: Ashland, Charles City, Prince George, Richmond, Sandston (portable) and Boydton (portable). The retroactive process requires collecting 12 months of plant operations data across many categories, including material purchases and transportation distances, on-site energy consumption, fleet fuel use, water use and other environmental data such as air emissions, water effluents and waste generation. Afterward, NRMCA’s consultant, Athena, adds that data to the previously-collected dataset which came from approximately 150 companies and 2,000 plant participants across the United States. The IW-EPD and participating companies and plants can be found here. With the addition of the above plants, Chaney has a total of 28 IW-EPD participating plants in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia that can communicate the environmental impacts of ready mixed concrete production. Driving this decision included expanding Chaney’s commitment to environmental disclosure and responding to market green building projects. The trend in reporting company and product environmental, social and governance practices is growing and, with environmental impact criteria being discovered in green building construction documents and specifications, procurement decisions are leaning beyond price and performance. When raw material suppliers demonstrate a lower embodied carbon for their customers it provides them increased future business opportunities. 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. For support, training, sustainability strategy planning or program development, contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138.
Government Affairs
On Friday, May 28, President Biden released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2022. The Presidential budget sets forward the administration’s proposed financial framework and provides Congressional committees a blueprint for the Administration’s vision for government spending over the next fiscal year. The FY2022 budget totals some $6 trillion in spending. You can review the budget here, a fact sheet here and an analysis of the spending proposals here. The budget included many of the priorities outlined in the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan in addition to the core $1.5 trillion budget outlined earlier this year. The infrastructure investment proposed in the American Jobs Plan was included and clarified in the Department of Transportation’s Budget Highlights document. The budget includes a number of tax proposals. For corporations, the budget proposes to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%, establish a minimum book tax, tighten international tax rules and eliminate certain tax credits. For individuals, the budget proposal will raise the top tax bracket, tax income from long-term capital gains and carried interest at ordinary rates, and eliminate step-up in basis of assets for death tax calculations. You can read a full analysis published by Deloitte here. A provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allowing closely held corporations to deduct up to 20% from their pre-tax income was not touched. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.
SEO
Last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) extended for the fifth time an emergency declaration first issued in March 2020 allowing for flexibility of certain transportation regulations for carriers impacted by COVID-19. The extension runs through August 31 after which date carriers will be required to resume normal compliance operations for everything from hours of service to driver training requirements to driver medical qualifications and CDL renewals. Click here to review the declaration extension. To review this declaration and other COVID-19-related regulatory guidance, please visit NRMCA’s COVID-19 Resources website. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. NRMCA’s Think First series of monthly safety initiatives feature different industry-specific safety items relevant to seasons, current topics and/or industry concerns. The initiatives are meant to be shared, used as a training tool, printed, posted and/or distributed, each of which is encouraged. This month’s issue, titled Cement Burns, is pictured here. Click here to view this month’s and all previous issues. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.
Get ready for the National Mixer Driver Appreciation Week, taking place August 2 - 6. To help celebrate our industry’s drivers, please visit the Appreciation Week Store which includes polos, t-shirts, hats, beverage tumblers, first-aid kits, safety glasses, masks and portable power banks. It will remain open through Tuesday, June 15. Orders will then be shipped by July 15 and arrive by August 1, just in time for Appreciation Week. Click here to access the store via the NRMCA Appreciation Week webpage. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. 
NRMCA is offering 20% off the regular price of its popular Fundamentals of Concrete on-demand webinar series. The course presents the nuts and bolts of concrete materials, mixtures and construction practices, from the materials used to make concrete, the standards they must meet and the way it’s made, delivered, placed and finished. If you are a design professional, contractor, concrete producer or supplier to the concrete industry, this course is a must. If you are new to concrete, this is your crash course on your way to becoming a concrete pro. If you’ve worked with concrete for a long time, this will be an excellent refresher on the latest methods, techniques and standards for concrete. The course is taught online, in three parts of three hours each. Each part costs $80, 20% off the regular price.
Click here for more information or Contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org. August 3 - 5, Smyrna, TN September 29 - October 3, Kissimmee, FL November 9 – 11, Dallas 
Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. Thursday, June 3, Free Online Webinar Thursday, June 10, Free Online Webinar June 15 – 17, Smyrna, TN Thursday, June 17, Free Online Webinar June 21 - 24, Online Course Thursday, June 24, Free Online Webinar |
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