News Detail

Sustainability: A Critical Issue for Our Industry

7/1/2002

This issue of CI is devoted to articles discussing sustainability and the concrete industry. Several notable papers dealing with sustainability have appeared over the last few years, but this issue is the first attempt by ACI to focus on the topic. As explained by V. Mohan Malhotra in his introduction, this focus issue of CI is the result of the work of a Board Task Group on Sustainability.

To most people, sustainability invokes discussion of how “green,” or environmentally friendly, an industry may be. For us in the concrete industry, greenness involves production of our raw materials; production, delivery, and placement of concrete; and recycling of our wastes, as well as the recycling, ultimately, of concrete itself. The papers in this issue address these topics.

To me, sustainability involves a somewhat broader scope than how we use our materials and products. I believe that we must also consider questions of attracting and retaining qualified people for the industry and for the Institute. Additionally, there are a number of concrete industry issues such as industry fragmentation; technology development, validation, and introduction; and perceived complexity of design that must be addressed. These people and industry concerns are discussed in the paper I have authored and are not repeated here. However, these issues must be addressed along with the more traditional greenness issues for our industry to remain competitive.

It appears to me that the topic of building or structural greenness is just getting off the ground in the United States. One attempt to define greenness is the LEED Green Building Rating System, which is currently being promoted by the U.S. Green Building Council. This system rates a structure in five categories, including its use of materials and resources. Under this category, use of supplementary materials such as fly ash and slag cement as well as designing to minimize life-cycle cost apparently would help qualify a concrete structure for a high rating. However, it is possible to achieve the highest possible rating without addressing any concrete materials issues. The concrete industry seems to have had very little, if any, input to this model. As a result, contributions of concrete to the sustainability of a structure may not be credited as they should be. A goal during my term as president is to get ACI more involved with this rating system.

At least one state government, that of New York, has developed a system of tax credits to owners of structures depending upon how green the structure is determined to be. I am not aware of what degree of involvement the concrete industry may have had in this rating system.

We are now at the point in time at which the concrete industry must dig in and become heavily involved with the issue of greenness of concrete construction and how our material is perceived. Some of the work can be done within our technical committees, while the remainder must be done outside the Institute. This outside work will require the commitment of significant resources.

ACI has long been the source of technical information for the industry. Should the Institute expand its scope of work and devote a portion of its resources to this activity? To do so could very well mean reductions in other, more traditional, activities of the Institute. If ACI is not the appropriate organization to pursue this activity, where should the industry look for leadership?

Please read the papers in this issue and let me hear from you. Sustainability is a critical issue for our industry and for the Institute. I believe the voice of the membership of ACI needs to be heard.

Terry Holland
President,
American Concrete Institute

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