Concrete Products covers the issues that attract producers of ready mixed and manufactured concrete focusing on equipment and material technology, market development and management topics.
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NEWS SCOPE GREEN BUILDING LEED 2012 changes too sweeping for timely shift from 2009 version The addition of measurement and per- formance tools affecting construction material and product specifications for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design certification-targeted projects is among factors behind U.S. Green Build- ing Council's decision to delay a final LEED 2012 ballot until later this year, then rebrand the new version LEED v4 for a mid-2013 release. The council also attributes concerns of members, core LEED users and stakehold- ers raised on the LEED 2012 roll out, along with its intent to provide the mar- ketplace a pre-ballot view of the full LEED program experience. The LEED 2012 draft has been refined from the 2009 standard to address technical changes in- formed by market data, stakeholder-gen- erated ideas, and technology advances. The new version's additional perform- ance-based management features will help gauge projects' energy and water usage, site and building material selec- tion, and indoor environmental quality. In addition to the ballot date change, USGBC will keep LEED 2009 open for reg- istration for three years; continue to seek assistance in "test driving" LEED v4 to gain insight while improvements in usability infrastructure proceed; and, commit to a fifth public comment period (October 2–December 10) to take advan- tage of public forums and educational sessions at the 2012 Greenbuild Expo in San Francisco. Greenbuild will also serve as a platform to debut new forms, sub- mittal documents and online enhance- ments tied to LEED v4. "This is 100 percent in response to our members' desire that we give them a bit more time to absorb the changes in this next version of the rating system," says USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi. "We want to do everything we can to ensure that the market can fully embrace LEED v4 be- cause it represents significant progress on carbon reduction and human health." ISO STANDARD ADDRESSES ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CONCRETE The standard provides a framework The Geneva-based group whose 9000 and 14000 series standards are recog- nized in quality assurance and environ- mental management systems worldwide has added a concrete-specific docu- ment suited to the sustainability era. International Organization for Stan- dardization's ISO 13315-1:2012, "Envi- ronmental management for concrete and concrete structures—Part 1: Gen- eral Principles," spells basic rules on environmental management for concrete and concrete structures for owners, de- signers, manufacturers, constructors, users, certification bodies, and environ- mental standard developers. Intended to contribute to continual im- provement of the environmental impacts resulting from concrete-related activities, ISO 13315-1:2012 ensures consistency with the ISO 14000 series on environ- mental management. It covers the sec- ondary effects of concrete production and construction that consume large amounts of resources—water, energy, cement and steel—and emit sizable volumes of car- bon dioxide in their processing. and basic rules on environmental man- agement related to concrete and con- crete structures, from assessment of impacts to methods of implementing environmental improvement. It ad- dresses the entire life cycle of concrete structures, including: a) design, pro- duction, recycling and disposal of con- crete, and b) building, use and demolition. Available through the ISO store at www.iso.org, 13315-1:2012 was devel- oped by technical committee ISO/TC 71, Concrete, reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete, subcommittee SC 8, Environmental management for con- crete and concrete structures. "Today, the concept of sustainability is re- quired in every aspect of social, eco- nomic, and cultural activities. ISO 13315-1 will help the construction in- dustry answer the need of sustainabil- ity and provide a strong support at all phases of the life cycle of concrete structures," notes Committee Chairman Professor Koji Sakai. JULY 2012 | 19