Celebrating Concrete Producers Who are Environmental Leaders

To recognize Earth Day this year, CarbonCure Technologies wants to commend all of the concrete producers out there that make protection of the air, water and land a priority every day. 

We’d particularly like to offer our kudos to the 11 plants and their owners that received 2020 Commitment to Environmental Excellence Awards last month from the National Ready Mix Concrete Association. And we’re deeply proud to put a special spotlight on two award winners that partner with CarbonCure to reduce their carbon footprint and produce sustainable concrete—Concrete Supply Co.’s King Mountain, NC plant and Central Concrete Supply Co.’s San Francisco, CA mixing facility. 

These awards are of course no small honor: The NRMCA has been giving them out for  25 years as a way to provide national recognition for companies that go above and beyond governmental compliance requirements to make “outstanding contributions to protecting the environment and maintaining sound management practices in their operations” through investments in their staff and operations. 

What’s more, the Environmental Excellence Awards are more difficult to win than they used to be.

“The Environmental Excellence Awards program was completely revised three years ago. Rules changes have made it easier for plants to enter, making the competition even tougher. These plants have demonstrated that they are the ‘best of the best’ when it comes to being good stewards of the environment,” said NRMCA Executive Vice President of Operations and Compliance Gary Mullings in an announcement of the awards. 

Open to any NRMCA member company with a fixed plant location in the United States and its territories or Canada, entrants are judged based on site aesthetics, environmental documentation, training, water and air quality management, returned concrete plan, community relations, ready mixed delivery and plant sustainability practices. 

Concrete Supply Co. Kings Mountain Plant: Third Place, North & Eastern Zone

Congratulations to the Concrete Supply Co., Kings Mountain Plant, Kings Mountain, North Carolina for their Third Place 2020 Environmental Excellence Award, North & Eastern Zone. The Kings Mountain Plant is one of more than 90 plant Concrete Supply Co. (CSC) production facilities throughout both North and South Carolina. Known for Environmental Excellence, the 63-year-old company uses its Environmental Management System (EMS), a requirement for the Green-Star certification, to set high environmental preservation and protection standards and practices.

“Even in today’s economic climate, we utilize available resources to further promote the company’s environmental goals,” noted Concrete Supply Environmental Manager Johnie Alexander in the NRMC announcement. “An EPA Energy Star audit has provided us a baseline of utility usage, and from there we are able to develop usage/cost saving strategies. The EMS program has educated, guided, and allowed us to incorporate sustainable practices throughout the company.”

The Kings Mountain plant is located in a suburban area outside of Charlotte on the grounds of an active quarry, next to a retention lake. Surrounding hardwoods help keep dust from leaving the production area, but in keeping with its North Carolina air quality permit, the company employs extensive dust control measures, including spreading recycled water. The company also follows a comprehensive protocol for limiting the water it uses, treating its process water and either allowing it to replenish groundwater or reusing it.

Central Concrete San Francisco Plant: First Place, Far Western Zone

Sustainability is a big priority for Central Concrete of San Jose, CA, and in announcing its San Francisco plant’s First Place Award for the Far Western Zone, the NRMCA recognized the company for its corporate environmental policy training. The program is aimed at making sure that each employee understands the policy and realizes that they have a shared commitment to promoting sustainability and preventing water and air pollution. 

The five main goals of the policy are: Meet or Exceed Governmental Requirements, Empower Employees, Strive to Reduce the Environmental Impact of our Operations, Review and Improve Practices and Be Responsible Stewards. It achieves the goals through investment in pavement sweeping, plant equipment and infrastructure, rackout control and waste monitoring and proper disposal.

Central Concrete, a business unit of U.S. Concrete, and has served the Bay area for more than 70 years, was also recognized for providing its staff with Mapistry software to help team members monitor compliance with changing requirements in real time through mobile apps or dashboards on their computers. 

Water conservation is a big focus of the San Francisco plant’s environmental program, and the plant was commended for saving 250,000 gallons of water in 2019 by installing the Shumaker Load and Go truck-washing system. The plant also reduces both its runoff and reliance regional water supplies by recycling settled process water and stormwater. 

Next Year This Time…

The Environmental Excellence Awards may be harder to win than in the past, but we think they’re a great goal to strive for, and doing so helps ready-mix producers to enhance their sustainability and environmental practices. The deadline for 2021 applications is July 23, 2021, and you can find entry instructions here. Meantime, CarbonCure is here to help you achieve environmental excellence—reducing carbon, one truck at time!