Seattle, WA, June 9, 2021 – The first of a four-part webinar series on pathways to carbon neutrality in the cement and concrete sectors was a huge success.
Three world experts outlined how low carbon concrete construction in the future will lower greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change.
Speaking from London England, Dr. Andrew Minson, Director of Concrete and Sustainable Construction of the Global Cement and Concrete Association, spoke about Concrete 2.0 – how the world’s most widely used building product will lead the way to a lower carbon footprint in the built environment.
New forms of concrete are fully reusable, absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, use the waste products of other sectors, are responsibly sourced, and virtually lasts forever, he noted.
Richard Bohan, Vice President, Sustainability from the Portland Cement Association, speaking from Las Vegas, NV illustrated how optimizing concrete by improving what goes into cement can significantly lower energy consumption and result in a lighter, more durable, and longer-lasting building material.
Breakthrough technologies have enabled optimization in each phase of construction from design through to scheduling, materials handling, construction, lifetime use, and end-of-life demolition and reuse.
Concrete has become a huge carbon sink, he noted, pointing out that about 10% of CO2 generated from the manufacture, transportation, and use of cement and concrete is absorbed throughout the life of a concrete structure.
His message was reinforced by Adam Auer, Vice President of Environment and Sustainability at the Cement Association of Canada speaking from Ottawa.
Canada’s cement and concrete manufacturers are committed to leadership in the global effort to mitigate and adapt to climate change and specifically to achieve carbon-neutral concrete by 2050, he said.
Toward this objective, he added, Canadian cement manufacturers are establishing collective milestone targets to reduce the carbon intensity of cement and will work with governments, civil society across the construction value chain to accelerate low-carbon technology and investment, which in turn will foster the transition to a safer climate-resilient economy.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to getting to carbon-neutral concrete, noted Auer. It’s going to take a menu of technologies and many routes to get there and that is why collaboration is so essential, he added.
The fact these three experts are working from different parts of the world has not diminished their capacity to collaborate on the need for more research and supportive government policies to facilitate the deployment of low carbon concrete.
The three speakers confirmed that reducing the environmental impact of structural construction materials and lowering the embodied carbon of construction projects by 30% is possible by using recycled and lower-carbon materials, material efficiency, performance-based design standards, and by conducting whole building life-cycle assessments for major buildings and infrastructure projects.
This webinar was the first of four events developed by the Pacific Northwest Building Resilience Coalition, in partnership with the Pacific Northwest Economic Region.
The next webinar, taking place on June 15th, will focus on Concrete Innovations and reducing the environmental impacts of building materials.
It will be followed weekly by webinars on Sustainability Solutions in the Concrete Industry, and the Resilience Advantage – the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Disaster Resilient Design.
The webinar series was opened with comments by Senator Mike Cuffe of Montana, President, PNWER, and by Richard Gotfried, Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Vice President PNWER.
Senator Cuffe invited the over 100 webinar participants to Big Sky Montana in August for the 30th Annual PNWER Summit.
The webinar proceedings were moderated by William Larson, Chairman of the Pacific Northwest Building Resilience Coalition.
“These great speakers have shown us what the future holds for the concrete industry and how from a local, regional, and international perspective concrete can lead us to a lower carbon economy” Larson noted.
More information on the webinar series is available on the Building Resilience Coalition website here.__
You can register for the series here: bit.ly/resiliencepathway
For more information, contact us at info@buildingresiliencecoalition.org
