National focuses on enhancing their offerings through their state-of-the-art Technical Center in Ontario. Equipped with advanced technical equipment and a team of skilled personnel, this dedication is evident in their transition to Type 1L cement, involving extensive testing with various aggregate suppliers, cementitious material combinations, and admixtures to achieve a range of goals and strengths.
"Collaboration is very important," notes Jim Little, NRMCC's head of Technical Sales. "Unfortunately, many in the engineering community, like to stick to their boiler plate spec, the same one they use nationwide. But in order to get away from prescriptions and work towards lowering embodied carbon, we have to realize those same old specs do not work for sustainability."
With more than 30 years of experience in the industry, Little’s expertise on concrete sustainability is vast — stretching from quality control to testing and field inspections and everything related to sales and account management. As the move toward decarbonization takes center stage in the industry, his input is invaluable to the company and its clients.
Engage Suppliers Early
One of the most common questions he’s asked by designers is “When is the right time to start talking about low-carbon concrete?” His answer: sooner than you may think. “Even if a project is just in the conceptual stage, it’s not too early,” says Little. “Low carbon concrete cannot be an afterthought and it takes time to fully optimize concrete mixtures. As a supplier, the requirements need to be known months in advance to enable us to perform concrete trial batches to determine not only the compressive strength but also the drying shrinkage and modulus of elasticity. The selection of a ready mix supplier should not be made at the last moment.”
Prescriptive Specs vs Performance Specs
Little highlights the AEC community also needs to understand that moving to a performance-based specification (instead of a prescriptive-based one) can reduce embodied carbon and still deliver a product that is constructible and resilient. “A very prescriptive concrete specification is a great way to stifle our ability to provide a low-carbon concrete. A performance specification tells us what we need to do and enables us to decide how to do it.”
“This approach,” he notes, “maximizes the opportunity to reduce embodied carbon and gain the maximum benefit possible for the mixture of constructibility and sustainability.”