ConExpo 2020: PCA campaign emphasizes ubiquity of concrete

The Skokie, Illinois-based Portland Cement Association (PCA) announced a multi-media awareness campaign called Shaped by Concrete at the ConExpo 2020 event in Las Vegas in March. PCA refers to Shaped by Concrete as “a new educational campaign to increase awareness of the sustainability, resiliency and durability of concrete made with cement.”

“As we prepare for the challenges future generations face, concrete will be even more critical to building a sustainable world for tomorrow,” says Mike Ireland, president and CEO of the PCA. “Concrete support[s] sustainable economic, social and environmental development priorities, and the Shaped by Concrete campaign is how we’ll tell that story to stakeholders and partners.”

According to the PCA, the campaign will focus on themes often overlooked and underrepresented in conversations and media coverage of cement and concrete, including concrete’s ability to meet sustainable development goals, decrease costs from natural disasters and assist with key societal challenges.

At a press briefing at ConExpo announcing the campaign, Ireland said concrete is “so ubiquitous, people don’t realize it’s around them.” He called concrete “the second-most consumed product on Earth, after water.”

A PCA video shown by Ireland portrayed the abundant sidewalks, roads, bridges and buildings that make concrete ubiquitous, as well as high-profile projects like Hoover Dam and long highway tunnels that consume large amounts of the material.

Regarding its sustainability, “Compared to other building materials, concrete is a low-impact material, with the amount of energy consumed to extract, refine, process, transport and fabricate, as well as the amount of carbon to produce it, being lower than other building materials,” states the PCA.

Additionally, exposed concrete “continually absorbs carbon from the atmosphere and captures it forever, known as carbonation, offsetting emissions from its initial creation,” adds the organization.

At ConExpo, Ireland said the PCA and affiliated researchers have determined that concrete, as it is used. currently absorbs as much as 43 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) it took to produce it. He said those same researchers have as their goal for concrete to become a “carbon sink,” or to absorb an equal amount of CO₂ as it consumed to produce it.

Another sustainability factor cited by Ireland is concrete’s durability, particularly in the face of adverse weather conditions. When it comes to infrastructure resiliency, “each dollar spent saves $6 later,” stated Ireland.