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.
Issue link: http://concrete.epubxp.com/i/75186
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS CP STAFF TITAN CHIEF STRESSES BUILDING RESILIENCY IN RIO+20 POLICY TALK Addressing last month's Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Port- land Cement Association Chairman and Titan American CEO Aris Papadopoulos called on business leaders of the world to include re- silient construction in public policy, noting that just building "green" is not enough to protect human lives and business investment. "To me, the conversation on sustainability was missing one element—resilience. Urban- ization investment over the next 20 to 30 years will exceed all such investment made so far in human history. It's very important this investment is resilient, so we don't have to build it twice," he said, speaking formally in his capacity as chairman of the United Na- tions International Strategy on Disaster Re- duction Private Sector Advisory Group. In the last 12 years, natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes have caused $1.3 trillion in damages world- Lawmakers write tax credit for sound construction National Ready Mixed Concrete Associ- ation is part of a broad coalition sup- porting the Disaster Savings and Resilient Construction Act of 2012 (H.R. 5839), recently introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL). The legislation would offer $3,000 and $25,000 tax credits, respectively, for residential and commercial struc- tures meeting the 2009 or later Inter- national Building Code and receiving the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety of FORTIFIED for Safer Living/Business designation. The credit would apply to structures built within a federally declared dis- aster zone up to two years following a triggering event. "When communities are built to re- silient, robust standards, we help to ensure that the places where we live, learn, work, worship and play are safe and sustainable," says NRMCA Presi- dent Robert Garbini. "We applaud Representatives Davis and Diaz-Balart for their leadership on this issue." A recent Congressional Budget Of- fice analysis has found that where federal dollars are spent on pre-disas- ter mitigation programs, "on average, future losses are reduced by about $3 for every $1 spent on those projects." WWW.CONCRETEPRODUCTS.COM JULY 2012 | 11 wide. Speaking at the session, "A Changing World: Business as Unusual," Papadopoulos was joined by other business leaders seek- ing to build a consensus on a more sustain- able course for the world. He stressed that there is now a call for making enhanced resilience of a structure to natural and man-made disasters the first consideration of a green building. Improved disaster resistance results in the need for less energy and resources for repair, removal, disposal, and replacement of building mate- rials and contents due to routine mainte- nance and operations, as well as disasters.