CEMEX Plant Showcases Land Stewardship Projects

In March 2012, CEMEX, Inc. selected its CEMEX USA Brooksville South cement plant as the pilot quarry for a Biodiversity Action Plan study that subsequently paired the facility with the local Hernando Audubon Chapter.

Together they documented the tremendous variety of bird species that populate the 10,000 acre site. This collaboration established a baseline survey for birds, evaluated a bird species conservation across CEMEX sites, and improved the potential for increasing biodiversity in the region.

The Brooksville South quarry also received Wildlife at Work recertification in 2012 by the Wildlife Habitat Council for creating, conserving, and restoring habitat. This restoration effort included CEMEX employee volunteers as well as members of the community. This honor was in addition to being a recipient of Wildlife Habitat certification from the National Wildlife Federation.

CEMEX’s Brooksville South plant received special recognition for their commitment to improving the environment and their communities at the PCA 12th Annual Cement Industry Environment and Energy Awards.  It was the winner of the Land Stewardship award.

MIT Releases Research Brief on Resiliency

The Concrete Sustainability Hub at MIT recently released the research briefs “Quantitative Assessment of Resilience in Residential Building Envelope Systems.”  The brief discusses current research in exploring tools and methods that attempt to quantify the resistance of residential structures to destructive events with the goal of incorporating those into a cost-benefit analysis.

The research is focused on the role of envelope systems within the larger framework of multiple building strategies.  Research will assist designers and builders to quantify the physical resilience of residential structures as a portion of the overall systems concept of resilience. Comparing this performance against costs will inform decision-making and facilitate communication of the cost and performance trade-offs of alternative designs.

 As part of the research, MIT surveyed current practices in the insurance and construction industries to identify methods that are used to quantify the resistance of buildings to various hazards. In addition to private risk modeling companies that provide services to the insurance industry, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has developed risk modeling (Hazus), resilience screening (IRVS), and target analysis (OPR) tools to assess options for more resilient structures. However, available tools neglect the notion that a building is embedded in a system, which limits the value of assessing resilience for single buildings independently. Furthermore, identifying the beneficiaries, such as insurance companies or homeowners, would allow for a better understanding of the benefits of more resilient structures.
View additional MIT Research briefs at web.mit.edu/cshub

Concrete Overlay Market Expected to Grow

According to a recent PCA analysis of the concrete overlay pavement sector, the industry will gain market share in the overlay sector in the coming years.  This is attributable to greater awareness of the technology as well as changes in the relative price of concrete versus asphalt that favors concrete.

Between 2000 and 2009 asphalt prices increased 89 percent. Concrete prices increased only 47 percent. Since 2009, asphalt prices have increased 20 percent while there has been no to minimal increases in concrete prices.  With rising asphalt prices, concrete’s market share should grow. Using Oman data, PCA estimated that concrete’s market share increases 0.14 percent for every one percent rise in relative asphalt prices.

PCA estimates that the overlay share will increase from 1.6 percent in 2012 to 3.2 percent in 2020 and 8.5 percent in 2030. This translates to roughly 375,000 metric tons in 2012 to 1.1 million metric tons in 2020, and nearly 2.3 million metric tons in 2030.
Read the overlay report
Contact Ed Sullivan

May 2013 PCA Paving Advocacy Webinar Planned

The Paving Committee holds monthly paving advocacy conference calls to share best practices and avenues to successful advocacy and promotional efforts. The calls will also be a forum to discuss existing and new integrated paving solution (IPS) tools and materials developed to support key messages.  Scheduled for the third Friday of each month, the next call is May 24 at 10 am Central.

This month’s call will feature an economic assessment of the concrete overlay opportunity, a presentation on new research that shows the effectiveness of pervious concrete in removing zinc and copper from stormwater runoff, and an update on the activities of PCA’s Government Affairs Committee and the upcoming “Cement & Concrete Day on the Hill."

The calls are ideal for members of PCA committees, regional promotion committees, ACPA chapters, and ready-mixed concrete state affiliates.
Register for the call here
Contact Alpa Swinger

WRDA Passes Senate, Includes Action on Resiliency – On May 15, the Senate passed the Water Resources Development Act of 2013, S. 601, by a vote of 83 to 14.  PCA actively supported passage of the legislation which included a resiliency amendment sponsored by Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Bill Nelson (D-FL).  The Blunt-Nelson amendment creates a definition for the term “resiliency” and modifies two studies to reflect the impact of resilience on vulnerability to extreme weather events and the long-term costs associated with being more resilient.  PCA also led an industry-wide effort in support of another bill, S. 904, and related amendment offered by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Roger Wicker (R-MS).  The bill/amendment also defines “resiliency” and creates an interagency task force to assist state and local officials with efforts to build smarter and be more resilient.  Ultimately, the Gillibrand-Wicker amendment was unable to be considered and therefore was not part of the Senate-passed WRDA bill.
Contact  Justin Louchheim

PCA Submits Comments on GHG Reporting Revisions  – On May 17, PCA submitted comments on EPA’s proposed revisions to the Mandatory Reporting Rule for GHG emissions. The PCA comments express support for EPA’s proposal to clarify “facility-wide” reporting for cement makers, and opposition to federal regulators’ desire to retroactively alter data from previously filed GHG emissions reports. EPA states that it seeks to modify previous reports to reflect new data on global warming potentials recently published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cement makers believe that retroactive revision will undermine regulatory certainty.
Contact Bryan Brendle

PCA Hosts MSHA, Others in Stakeholder Meeting – At a meeting in Birmingham, Ala., on May 6, Assistant Secretary of Labor Joseph Main and MSHA headquarters leadership staff gave remarks to an assembly of 80 individuals representing cement and aggregates producers. PCA organized the meeting that included presentations from Main, cement company representatives, and several mining associations in the southeastern United States.  The meeting included a tour of the Lehigh Hanson plant in Leeds, Ala., where Main addressed employees during a safety lunch.
Contact Tom Harman

PCA Recognizes Cement Plants’ Innovative Safety Solutions

PCA recently recognized four cement facilities with the 2013 PCA Safety Innovation Awards.

The Safety Innovation Awards honor innovative projects that achieve the objectives of PCA’s Occupational Health and Safety Committee: to recognize and reward creative projects in the portland cement industry; to communicate these ideas to North American cement manufacturers; and to elevate the importance of innovative solutions to safety challenges in the portland cement industry.

The plants honored were:

> Buzzi Unicem USA, Cape Girardeau, Mo.—Mill and grinding
> National Cement Company, Ragland, Ala.— General facility
> GCC of America, Tijeras, N.M.— General facility
> Ash Grove Cement Company, Leamington, Utah —General facility

Cement Americas magazine, a co-sponsor of the awards, features the winning plants and their projects in an upcoming issue. The Cement Association of Canada also was an award sponsor.
Contact Tom Harman

Building Codes Becoming More Political

After residential fire sprinklers were included as optional in the 2009 International Code Council (ICC) International Residential Code (IRC), the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the state and local home builder associations initiated a campaign to introduce legislation to prohibit fire sprinklers in one and two-family dwellings and town homes. 

Subsequently, residential fire sprinkler requirements became mandatory in the 2012 IRC.  In doing so, the passive fire protection requirements in the IRC were relaxed as sprinkler trade-offs and removed or reduced passive fire protection.  These trade-offs include reducing the fire protection requirements for exterior walls and reducing the fire resistance rating for walls separating townhomes, now that there is legislation in place prohibiting the mandate of residential fire sprinklers in one and two-family dwellings and townhomes. 

As jurisdictions adopt the 2012 IRC, homeowners will not be provided with the minimum passive fire protection required without the presence of sprinklers in addition to not having the fire sprinklers.  NAHB reports that legislation defeating mandatory fire sprinkler requirements have been approved in 36 states and is pending in nine others.  Where this legislation exists and jurisdictions adopt the 2012 IRC homeowners will be lacking both passive and active fire protection.
Contact Steve Szoke