2025 Award Winners and Nominees
Project Name
TVRM: Moving to Valued Supplier/Amazon
Description
Titan Virginia Ready-Mix (TVRM) is the NRMCA member company and a leading provider of ready-mixed concrete across the Commonwealth of Virginia. TVRM is part of Titan America and has long been a leader in low-carbon concretes, earning some of the first NRMCA Green-Star plant certifications.
In 2020, Amazon announced a sustainability commitment to reach net-zero emissions across its operations by 2040.
To meet Amazon’s decarbonization goals, TVRM was able to bring an array of innovations, all under the GreenCrete® brand, to meet Amazon’s target while maintaining the constructability and schedule critical to the contractor and the concrete performance essential to the Engineer. This includes innovations like AI-optimized mix designs, Type IL portland limestone cement, higher SCM replacement, and strength enhancing admixtures. GreenCrete® is uniquely optimized to each customer.
While Amazon’s projects were buildings and paving in the standard line of commercial real estate construction, the concepts of decarbonization and sustainability achieved were cutting edge. TVRM now supplies 30+ projects a year with the low-carbon solution.
Evidence
With a climate pledge of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040—10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement—Amazon is on the speedway toward decarbonization. What Amazon initially thought it needed was the potential limiting of concrete products in future use and any ready-mix concrete utilized needed to include an alternative technology. Amazon’s previous approach was delivering 2.5-3% CO2 reduction per CY. TVRM challenged this thinking with proprietary mix designs consistent with Amazon’s pledge, a place and finish approach to maintain project timelines, elimination of the high cost/low effectiveness of the alternative, real-time carbon tracking and Titan product consultancy services.
The product development approach to reducing CO2 impact carried the day. The dosage, working mechanism, Global Warming Potential (GWP) reduction per CY of concrete, batching cycle time, ASTM approval status, and the absence of a need for special equipment were compelling advantages over its existing approach to lowering carbon impacts. Titan’s solution delivered 25-30% reductions initially and additional savings year over year.
TVRM and RCC established to the customer’s satisfaction that the product solution had the capability to meet Amazon’s CO2 requirements with environmental product declarations, Type IL cement, SCMs, admixtures, and mix optimization. The team was well-equipped for the task of turning Amazon to the low-carbon product approach. Armed with branded decarbonization solutions (Optima, ENVIRA, Chroma and GreenCrete) and real-time result tracking capacity, the team had the answers to appeal to a sophisticated customer which had been distracted by alternative claims that were more sizzle than substance.
The marketing tenacity, product creativity and execution by TVRM offers an exemplary pathway to other industry participants.
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