The 2014 International Concrete Sustainability Conference general and technical sessions will provide learning and networking opportunities on the latest advances, technical knowledge, continuing research, tools and solutions for sustainable concrete construction. Over 60 world renowned experts will present the latest developments related to design, specifying, manufacturing, testing, construction, maintenance, and research of concrete as it relates to sustainability.

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Click here for the conference schedule.

Opening General Session (May 13, 8:00 am - 10:00 am)

Jeremy Gregory, PhD, Executive Director, Concrete Sustainability Hub and Research Director, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

Dr. Gregory studies the economic and environmental implications of engineering and system design decisions, particularly in the area of materials production and recovery systems. Research topics include product and firm environmental footprinting, manufacturing and life-cycle cost analysis, and characterization of sustainable material systems. He has applied these methods, often with industry partners, to a range of different products and industries including pavements, buildings, automobiles, electronics, consumer goods, and waste treatment and recovery. 

John L. Knott, Jr., Executive Director, Health Product Declaration Collaborative, United States

John L. Knott, Jr. is an internationally recognized leader in the regeneration of urban real estate, infrastructure, energy and environmental systems. He is the creator of the CityCraft process, which is a development and city planning process that restores the economic, environmental and social health of cities. Mr. Knott is a recognized thought leader and keynote speaker on sustainable development, the green economy and restoration of cities. Mr. Knott has over 40 years of experience in urban redevelopment. His award-winning projects include work at: the Baltimore Inner Harbor, urban areas in Baltimore and Washington DC; the University of Texas Health Science Center in the Houston Medical Center; Dewees Island in South Carolina; and the Noisette Community of North Charleston in South Carolina. As The Health Product Declaration Collaborative’s first Executive Director, Mr. Knott works with companies and individuals committed to the continuous improvement of the building industry’s environmental and health performance, through transparency and innovation in the building product supply chain. As President/CEO and co-founder of the Noisette Company, LLC, Mr. Knott leads the Noisette Project development team, which has collaborated with the City of North Charleston, South Carolina, in the sustainable restoration of 3,000 acres of the city’s historic urban core and areas of the former Charleston Naval Base. Mr. Knott also served as the CEO/Managing Director of Island Preservation Partnership, which developed the 1,206-acre Dewees Island oceanfront retreat dedicated to environmental preservation.

Phillip Williams, PE, LEED AP, Vice President of Sustainability and Technical Systems, Webcor Builders/Webcor Consulting, United States

As a Vice President at Webcor, Phil is responsible for all sustainability and engineering efforts related to project construction, business practices and institutional and private sector research and development. In 2010 Phil initiated and now also leads the Webcor Consulting Group. Webcor Consulting provides Project Management, Construction Management, Sustainability and Green Technologies services on a global basis with operations in Latin America, The Middle East and Asia. Webcor is a founding member of the Carbon Leadership Forum (CFL), formed with the University of Washington to advance Supply Chain Carbon Accounting and Phil currently serves on the Industry Advisory Board for CFL. As a consistent member and supporter of the Strategic Development Council (SDC) as part of the ACI Foundation, he now serves on the SDC Executive Board. Under his guidance Webcor was the first and only California business to report and independently verified complete Scope 1, 2 and 3 Green-House-Gas (GHG) emissions to the Climate Action Registry and was selected as the only construction firm to "Road Test" the World Resource Institute (WRI) carbon accounting/green-house-gas (GHG) scope 3 protocol, which in November of 2011 was released for international use. He is also the Chair of the Industry Advisory Board for the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) through the University of California at Berkeley, serves on Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) Working Group on Guaranteeing Building Energy usage and Phil serves as a member of the Executive Board of Directors for Eco-Districts where Webcor is a Founding Partner. Webcor is regularly acknowledge as one of the leading builders in California and is ranked in the top 40 largest specialty contractors in the United Sates. Webcor is a division of Obayashi Corporation, ranked in the top 25 of the world’s largest construction companies.

Closing General Session (May 14, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm)

Does Transparent Reporting Add Value to Green Buildings?

Are we taking the right approach to reporting material impacts, corporate social responsibility and material health effects? This session will feature expert panelists who will discuss the merits of the new transparency requirements in LEED v4 and other green building standards including Environmental Product Declarations, Corporate Social Responsibility Reports and Health Product Declarations.

Michael Lepech, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, United States

Dr. Michael Lepech, PhD, was Terman Fellow at Stanford University in 2008 and Horace H. Rackham Fellow at University of Michigan in 2005. Dr. Lepech’s research interests are guided by the Sustainable Integrated Materials, Structures, and Systems (SIMSS) design approach. The SIMSS design approach recognizes the interdependencies between materials design, structural engineering, and system management, along with the impacts each of these disciplines has on achieving more sustainable engineered systems. The impacts are quantified through life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques. Design changes at any scale (materials, structure, or system) have non-linear effects on overall sustainable performance. SIMSS quantifies these effects and enables comprehensive design for more sustainable built environments and other societal systems. Dr. Lepech received his PhD from University of Michigan in 2006 and MBA from University of Michigan in 2009.

Mark Webster, Structural Engineer, Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, United States

Mr. Webster is structural engineer with over 20 years of design experience with expertise in sustainable design. He leads the development of green practices and operations at SGH. Mr. Webster is founding member of the Structural Engineering Institute Sustainability Committee and is past chair of the Carbon Working Group where he led a team to publish a white paper titled Structure and Carbon: How Materials Affect the Climate. He is also past chair of the Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group of the US Green Building Council.

Jennifer Atlee, HPD Technical Liaison, Health Product Declaration Collaborative, United States

As Technical Liaison with the HPD Collaborative, Jennifer Atlee facilitates the adoption of the HPD by manufacturers and their supply chains by providing technical support and as staff liaison to the Manufacturers Advisory Board. Through her prior work with BuildingGreen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Toxics Use Reduction Institute, Rocky Mountain Institute, and Demand Management Institute, Jennifer has conducted research and analysis in a variety of sustainability topics including green building with a focus on materials, commercial and industrial energy efficiency, electronics recycling, and the economics of toxics use reduction. A primary focus of hers has been developing and clarifying standards to assess the environmental sustainability of products and processes.

Lisa Bradley, Ph.D. Vice President and Senior Toxicologist/Risk Assessor, AECOM, United States

Dr. Lisa Bradley has a Ph.D. in toxicology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is certified by the American Board of Toxicology, and has 25 years of experience in risk assessment and toxicology consulting. She is the global risk practice technical lead for AECOM. Dr. Bradley is the project manager for the Pines Area of Investigation in Indiana, a coal ash site being managed under the Superfund Alternative program in USEPA Region 5. She has also conducted risk assessments for coal ash landfills, environmental communications for proposed landfills, and has worked with clients to evaluate and comment on state groundwater standards for coal ash related constituents, and has been active with utilities and industry trade groups in responding to EPA’s proposed rulemaking. She is a member of the American Coal Ash Association, and was recently elected to the ACAA Executive Committee by the Board of Directors.

Kirsten Ritchie, Director of Sustainable Design, Gensler, United States

Kirsten Ritchie is a principal and director of sustainable design for Gensler, a global architecture and design firm. A recognized expert in sustainability rating systems (including LEED and CHPS), Kirsten has also played a pivotal role in the development of numerous building product standards including the newly released Health Product Declaration (HPD). She is also actively involved in the development and implementation of sustainability standards and guidelines at the organizational level, focused on improving the environmental performance and occupant well-being of global real estate portfolios and large mixed use developments. Ms. Ritchie is a LEED® AP+ (O+M) and a licensed professional engineer. She holds a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a master of science in civil engineering from California State University, San Jose. She serves on the Board of Directors and Material and Resources Technical Advisory Group (MR-TAG) of the US Green Building Council. She is also an advisor to the Ecological Building Network, the Health Product Collaborative and the Responsible Purchasing Network.

Godwin Amekuedi, Director of Quality Assurance, Argos USA

Godwin Amekuedi has over 30 years of Ready-Mixed Concrete and Concrete Construction related experience and is a Professional Engineer responsible for the development and administration of Argos USA’s Quality Management System of over 300 ready-mixed plants in the US. He participates on American Concrete Institute (ACI) Technical Committee 305 – Hot Weather, Committee 121 – Quality Management for Concrete Construction and (ACI) Committee 130 - Sustainability. Godwin is National Ready-Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) Research Engineering and Standards Committee – Past Chairman and member of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub Concrete Science Task Group. He is also a member of American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee C09 on Ready Mixed Concrete. In 2010 Godwin was featured by Concrete Producer magazine as a Top Industry Influencer.

Special Session: Sustainability of Pavements (May 14, 8:00 am - 10:00 am)

This session will feature experts from national and state experts discussing ongoing efforts to improve the sustainability of pavement infrastructure. Representatives from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), New York Department of Transportation (NYDOT) and developers of two different Canadian rating systems will present details of the rating systems they've implemented along with case histories.

Michael Culp, Team Leader-Sustainable Transport and Climate Change at FHWA, United States

Gina Ahlstrom, Senior Pavement Engineer, FHWA Office of Pavement Technology, United States

Paul Krekeler (invited), Policy and Planning Division, New York State Department of Transportation, United States

Tom Kazmierowski, Golder Associates Ltd., former Manager of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) Materials and Engineering Research Office, Canada

Technical Sessions (May 13 and 14)

The following is a list of presenters in alphabetical order (subject to change, detailed schedule coming soon).

Hongying Dong and Wanlin Cao, Beijing University of Technology, China
Seismic Performance of Recycled Concrete Shear Walls and Columns combining two papers: Seismic Performance of Low-rise Recycled Concrete Shear Walls, Hongying Dong and Wanlin Cai , and Seismic Behavior of Recycled Aggregate Concrete Short Columns, Wanlin Cao and Hongying Dong

Questions? Please contact Lionel Lemay of NRMCA, LLemay@nrmca.org, 847-918-7101.