CENTRAL CONCRETE
What motivated your company's interest in the EC3 tool?
Offering low carbon concrete design solutions is in Central Concrete's DNA and as a concrete ready-mix supplier we have made strategic investments in technologies such as Climate Earth's EPD on-demand generator to provide transparency and sustainable solutions.
Why was becoming a material partner something your company saw value in?
As the first ready-mixed concrete supplier in the Unites States to produce concrete mix EPDs, it was a natural fit for Central Concrete to be a material partner. Central Concrete's thousands of EPDs provide a significant database of concrete mix EPDs for the EC3 tool to utilize. In turn, the EC3 tool is helpful in demonstrating the value of low embodied carbon concrete mixes and the significant sustainability contribution that concrete can make as a building material, and the conversion to digitized EPDs will be a game changer for the industry, delivering the information that will allow superior insights.
Describe the process of being a materials partner on the EC3 tool:
The EC3 tool functions within Central Concrte's normal operations without requiring any extra steps since it automatially sources the on-demand EPDs we create routinely. As a partner, we are able to stay knowledgeable on the tool's development progress and contribute to concrete material and usage expertise to help make the tool more accurate and relevant. Being a material partner also gives us a better understanding of how the tool works so that we can be a better resource to EC3 tool users.
How has being a material partner informed your approach or understanding of embodied carbon and the role of the supply chain?
The EC3 tool has helped Central Concrete to expand our understanding of construction projects overall in terms of the choices and considerations that contractors and designers are making. Concrete is a versatile material and each mix design is characterized by a variety of performance criteria, which makes it complicated to define simply on an EPD. The contractor's placement methods, the engineer's structural performance requirements, and the architect's aesthetic requirements each have a role in defining the required mix design characteristics. It has been enlightening to work through how to incorporate all these considerations - along with sustainability - in a simplified form within the tool. The EC3 tool is also highlighting ways that concrete EPDs could be improved for increasing their accuracy and usability.
How are you currently using the tool as part of the pilot group?
As a concrete material supplier, Central Concrete plans to use the tool to identify how concrete can improve reporting descriptions and transparency on EPDs. We are using the tool to better understand how designers and contractors view our products. This allows us to better communicate our products in terms that are relatable to project teams. As a EC3 tool Methodology Partner, we are also providing input with the goal of improving the accuracy of concrete material information and offering suggestions on how the EC3 tool can utilize that information.
INTERFACE
What motivated your company's interest in the EC3 tool?
We have been working to reduce the carbon footprint of our products for over 25 years, and started reporting in EPDs 10+ years ago. In the last decade, this information still wasn't being used for decision-making on projects. The tool provides a path for comparing products to choose low-carbon options.
Why was becoming a material partner something your company saw value in?
Our company's mission is Climate Take Back - literally reversing global warming. With buildings representing 40% of global carbon emissions, reducing the carbon footprint of building materials is both impactful and in line with our mission.
Describe the process of being a materials partner on the EC3 tool:
We have had multiple connection points within our organization and the EC3 partners from technical to sales to PR. We've been very impressed with the speed to market and thoroughness - knowing that perfection isn't possible. Has felt very much like a team effort.
How has being a material partner informed your approach or understanding of embodied carbon and the role of the supply chain?
We have led on this for a long time, and we're thrilled that EC3 will move more of the market since we need all of us on board - not a select few.
How are you currently using the tool as part of the pilot group?
We have had a consultant using the tool to do a case study on or HQ building.
NATIONAL READY MIX
What motivated your company's interest in the EC3 tool?
National views the EC3 tool as cutting edge technology that pairs intimately well with the digital EPD's and CarbonClarity Suite of tools National Ready Mix has recently implemented. When combined, these tools fundamentally support the architectural and engineering community in designing today's buildings through an environmentally sensitive process that was never possible in the past. Having the ability to become an integral part of this very important process was extremely exciting for National Ready Mix.
Why was becoming a material partner something your company saw value in?
Being the first in Southern California to incorporate our EPD mixes in the EC3 tool supports our position as being the best choice material supplier available. We believe in being not just a ready mix supplier for our customers, but rather a valuable partner with a multitude of added resources.
Describe the process of being a materials partner on the EC3 tool:
National Ready Mix's decision to utilize digital EPD's made it possible for our EPD mix designs to feed flawlessly into the EC3 tool. Acknowledging the need for a concrete supplier to become actively involved in the design process is something that was seldom considered, until now.
How has being a material partner informed your approach or understanding of embodied carbon and the role of the supply chain?
As a major ready mix supplier, we have a vast array of mix designs of varying proportions, mand of which contain alternative materials. Being a material partner enables us to work closely with design professionals desiring to accurately select appropriate mixes for specific applications, while precisely measuring the impacts of embodied carbon.
How are you currently using the tool as part of the pilot group?
As a material supplier, we are generating EPD's for newly created mixes as well as EPD's for our existing mixes that immediately become visible in the EC3 tool. National Ready Mix is then able to consult with EC3 tool users to discuss specific mix performance, providing EC3 users the ability to accurately compare the embodied carbon in their decision making process.
PERKINS AND WILL
What motivated your company's interest in the EC3 tool?
At Perkins and Will, we apply whole-systems thinking to high performance sustainable design, and considerations for both embodied carbon and material transparency are at the heart of our approach. We recognized our industry's need to better understand and quantify the impacts of embodied carbon as part of our material selections.
The EC3 tool offered promising potential to extend our approach beyond traditional LCA tools and help us quantify the effects of our supply chain decisions. We believe that the EC3 tool gives us the abilty to optimize our design process by encouraging material transparency and optimizing embodied carbon from design through construction.
Why was becoming a pilot partner something your company saw value in?
The EC3 tool represented a shift in thinking that aligned with Perkins and Will's core values of innovation and research. We recognized the benefit of not only partnering with the depth of embodied carbon knowledge from the Carbon Leadership Forum, but also the opportunity to contribute our expertise to inform the evolution of the tool.
We believe this tool brings much needed transparency and innovation to industry considerations of embodied carbon quantification and will help us deliver better buildings.
Describe the process of being a pilot partner on the EC3 tool:
As a pilot partner, we have been involved in a few different aspects of the tool's beta version. While piloting to tool on two design-build projects in two different geographic regions, we engaged in dialogue with the EC3 tool's developers, asking questions and offering feedback. Through this dialogue, we learned that use of the EC3 tool is both exacting and intuitive. Embodied carbon reduction can be achieved by applying the best information we have at this time, acknowledging unknowns, and asking for more and better information to progress our understanding. We deepened our familiarity with the tool's capabilities by hosting internal demos for Perkins and Will staff eager to learn about the tool prior to launch.
How has being a pilot partner informed your approach or understanding of embodied carbon and the role of the supply chain?
Being a pilot partner has furthered our role (and imperative) as design professionals to positively influence the composition of the buildings we're designing and constructing. Materials in the same product category can have drastically different embodied carbon quantities, and the details presented by the EC3 tool ease the process for comparative analysis in a way that was previously not possible. This tool has changed how we interact with our teams, permitting regionally relevant information and graphics to guide our decision-making process and indentify tradeoffs (between embodied carbon and material health). It has reinforced our belief that the supply chain does play a significant role, and we can continue to push for lower embodied carbon products what that quantification is available.
How are you currently using the tool as part of the pilot group?
We are piloting the tool on two of our projects, one on Northern California and one in Western Washington. While we are exploring all facets of the tool and learning how to incorporate it into our processes, we are currently testing it to better inform our decisions about material selection and supply chain. The EC3 tool has helped us to discover new opportunities for embodied carbon reduction, and now we're moving from calculation into project-team engagement. On one of our pilots, we're collaborating with our contractor and specification writer to better understand how we specify and procure lower-carbon materials. Where this is not possible, we will reach out to manufacturers to ask for more specific information and transparency.
WEBCOR
What motivated your company's interest in the EC3 tool?
We were an original founder of the Carbon Leadership Forum and saw huge potential in working with this thought leadership group in helping to change the way the construction industry prioritizes material sourcing decisions within their business strategy. As only the second general contractor to have access to the tool as a pilot partner, we'd be able to provide an alternative perspective and build it into something valuable to the way we do business too.
Why was becoming a pilot partner something your company saw value in?
We wanted to be able to support first-hand and apply our in-house expertise around Sustainability and Self-Perform Concrete the development of the tool in what it will ultimately become. We knew our knowledge could be utilized in shaping the tool that will soon be utilized by many within our industry. The partnership allowed our Executives to become more familiar with the topic, and support setting a corporate carbon commitment. In addition, given we are self-perform contractor for Concrete, Drywall and Interiors we knew we could help facilitate a direct line of communication between the suppliers and client for improved procurement decisions and strategic carbon reporting metrics.
Describe the process of being a pilot partner on the EC3 tool:
Admittedly. the process started haphazardlly, as the core EC3 members tried to strategize how to best work with new pilot partners. Once the team organized, it was an efficient process with recurring meetings to allow for constant dialogue and feedback loop. We are excited to maintain the pilot partner "status" post launch, in order to be sure our hard work and recommendations are still prioritized.
How has being a pilot partner informed your approach or understanding of embodied carbon and the role of the supply chain?
Our team was decently familiar with embodied carbon prior to becoming a partner, however most of our company was not. Becoming a pilot partner has enabled us to emphasize the precedence amongst our colleagues and provide trainings and opportunities for them to become more involved. It has also allowed us to have more strategic conversations around our corporate commitments that Webcor as a company wants to make in order to push the marketplace even further. It takes the GC leaders in our industry to request/require new standards for all projects, in order to start seeing full adoption and transition as a new norm. The large manufacturers we work with repeatedly on projects will start to realize it takes open dialogue and collaboration with their organizations in order to make more informed decisions associated with embodied carbon. We as general contractors can't measure what we don't have, it's a two-way street.
How are you currently using the tool as part of the pilot group?
We are getting as many preconstruction projects in the tool, and developing instructional guidelines and forms to align and prioritize collection of EPDs with every bid request for concrete, structural steel, rebar, drywall and glass manufacturers. Our self-perform Webor Concrete team are being proactive with ready-mix suppliers in educating them on the need of this transparency in the marketplace, and has even been able to help support the efforst of National Ready Mix to be the first supplier in Los Angeles to provide on-demand EPDs.