ABC Ready Mix is Poised to Bring Low Carbon Concrete to California’s Vibrant Capital

After travelling to Hawaii in April, we’re now taking you on a trip to visit ABC Ready Mix Concrete (ABC) and its dynamic, historic and beautiful home of Sacramento, the capital of sustainably-minded California.

This is the second stop in our globe-circling blog series, Around the World with CarbonCure. If you’re signed up, each month you’ll get to hear the story of a new business bringing sustainable concrete to its community—and get an insider’s view of what makes its city and region such a great place to visit. 

Family-owned since its founding in 1960, ABC serves the fast-growing Greater Sacramento Area, the 5th largest metro region in California. Two of the company’s most notable projects to date are the Sacramento International Jet Center and Sacramento’s Aeroterm Cargo Building.

ABC is eager to make its operation and products easy on the environment, and knew right away after hearing about CarbonCure’s sustainable concrete solution that it was a fit.

“CarbonCure is another tool in helping our operation become environmentally friendly,” said Kevin Holzmeister, Owner of ABC. “We are currently looking at recycling water and reducing the volume of usage at our facility. ABC has a new, safe fleet of trucks with the latest emission reducing technology and we use renewable diesel fuels.”

ABC moved quickly to install CarbonCure’s concrete technology, and in January 2021, it became one of CarbonCure’s newest producer partners. 

“The pandemic has given us some challenges to work through; however, the CarbonCure team helped make the setup easy by providing step-by-step support to assist in the installation process and boots on the ground for onboarding procedures,” Holzmeister said. 

CarbonCure’s team members are continuing to work side-by-side with ABC to maximize success. CarbonCure’s Technical Services and Support (TSS) team provides mix optimization, data testing and analysis to design the optimal CO₂ dosages and deliver the same reliable product, but with a lower carbon footprint.

“With proven cement reductions confirmed, we celebrated our adoption of CarbonCure by wrapping our trucks, demonstrating our commitment to producing low-carbon, sustainable concrete,” said Andrew Gilmore, ABC’s Corporate Controller. “We are proud to be a first-market mover in the Sacramento area, meeting the growing demand from our customers to deliver sustainable materials for their projects.”

To help initiate green, sustainable building in the commercial and homeowner markets, CarbonCure’s Market Development team is providing sales and marketing training, lead sharing, and marketing collateral to ABC Ready Mix – empowering their team to open new business opportunities.

“We are so pleased to have the CarbonCure technology installed and ready to go,” Gilmore said.

“Concrete and concrete producers have an image of being environmentally unfriendly. Concrete is a great product, it is clean, long-lasting, and easy to maintain so why not make it green and sustainable? CarbonCure allows us to turn the product we produce and sell into something that is helping the environment.”

The only challenge in enjoying Sacramento is deciding among the options! 

The city and region offer fantastic museums and historic parks, the state capitol buildings, miles of bike paths and other outdoor opportunities, and great restaurants, wine-tasting and breweries. See Visit Sacramento for the full range—but to get you started, we offer three favorites that you don’t get to do in every city.

Get a Great Meal

Located at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers in the agriculturally bountiful Sacramento Valley, the city boasts terrific restaurants whose chefs draw on the fresh, high-quality ingredients at their fingertips. Pick some that suit your taste and expect delicious local wines and beer on the menu, too. 

Take in a Museum or Historic Park

The California State Railroad Museum is the largest railroad museum in the world, and offers the chance to board historic trains and learn about the people who rode them and the rail travel’s place in history. While you’re there, step outside to explore the surrounding Old Sacramento Historic Park and Old Sacramento Waterfront. Other noted museums include the Crocker Art Museum, and a full list can be found here.

Visit a Gold Rush Town or Take Another Day Trip

It was just outside Sacramento, at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, that Gold was first discovered, setting off the Gold Rush of 1848-1855. You don’t need to leave Sacramento to see traces of the Gold Rush, but getting out to a Gold Rush town such as Placerville or Coloma to visit a gold mine will give you the full experience—and you may even get to pan for gold! 

But if the Gold Rush is not your thing, there’s a day trip for everyone, such as Yosemite National Park, San Francisco and Napa Valley.

Are you ready for the next stop?

In May, we’ll travel to Kansas and Missouri for great barbeque, some unexpected sightseeing and a chance to visit Geiger Ready Mix, a CarbonCure customer and 5th generation family-owned business that includes respecting the environment in its core values. If you’ve not gotten a chance to sign up for our blog yet, you can do so here to make sure you don’t miss it!

---