Low-Carbon Concrete: Technologies, Policy, and the Pathway to Model Code Language
Join Dr. Matthew Adams, an associate professor and co-director of the materials and structures (MatSLab) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ, as he discusses how governmental agencies - local, regional, and federal - are the primary purchasers of concrete materials within the United States and around the world. Therefore, governments are positioned to lead the way in procuring low embodied carbon concrete (LECC) systems, reducing the global impact of concrete on climate change. Despite rigorous scientific research showing many options for reducing concrete's embodied carbon below standard levels, many agencies in the United States are still specifying concrete using prescriptive approaches which support outdated, high embodied carbon mixtures. Procurement processes, lack of technical understanding, and a lack of will amongst specifying agencies are all barriers to implementation of LECC mixture design techniques. This presentation will discuss the current range of policy initiatives that have either been passed or are in process to encourage procurement of LECC, the difficulties experienced in their implementation, and the impact that the active policies have had on procurement across the United States. Further discussion will be presented on how the concrete research and engineering community can support these initiatives through technical expertise. Finally, Dr. Adams will discuss the current efforts of ACI 323 - Low Carbon Concrete Code Committee to develop model code language for low carbon concrete.