2025 Award Winners and Nominees
Project Name
Yale University - Physical Science & Engineering Building
Description
The project entails constructing a new Physical Science & Engineering Building (Wright Lab) at Yale University. The building and lab will house some extremely sensitive scientific equipment measuring particles on an atomic scale. With this in mind, very special care went into the design and construction of the concrete foundations of the building to prevent excessive vibrations that could affect such sensitive equipment. O&G Industries (an NRMCA producer member) is the ready-mix concrete supplier for this ongoing project. The concrete includes Pozzotive® Ground-Glass Pozzolan (GGP) produced by Urban Mining CT as a Supplementary Cementitious Material (SCM) to replace up to 30% of the cement in the mix designs. The General Contractor is Turner Construction, who is self-performing the concrete installation.
Evidence
The project is scheduled to install approximately 9,350 cubic yards of concrete with Pozzotive® GGP replacing up to 30% of the cement. The production of Pozzotive® GGP emits roughly 94% less CO2e per ton than the industry average for the production of the cement. Approximately 893 tons of Pozzotive® are scheduled to replace 893 tons of cement for the project, which will prevent roughly 839 tons of CO2e emissions based on the industry-average EPD for cement, and the product specific Type III EPD for Pozzotive®.
Assuming that a typical glass container weighs roughly 0.5 lb, the projected use of 893 tons of Pozzotive® will have been derived from approximately 3.5 million locally repurposed glass containers, that would likely be sent to out-of-state landfills otherwise. Two-thirds of glass entering the recycling stream in the U.S. is sent to landfills, per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The glass used to produce Pozzotive® for the project was and will be harvested within 100 miles of the project site in New Haven, CT. Pozzotive® GGP is produced in Beacon Falls, CT less than 15 miles from the project site. This promotes a circular economy and the use of regional materials, further reducing the carbon footprint of the project.
For the concrete that has already been installed to date (3,155 cubic yards), approximately 324 tons of Pozzotive® have been used, which were derived from approximately 1.3 million locally repurposed glass containers. Based on O&G's Type III EPDs for its concrete mix designs, the project has already prevented approximately 243 tons of CO2e emissions. This was calculated by comparing the Type III EPDs for the mix designs used for the project with 30% Pozzotive®, to the EPDs for the equivalent mix designs without Pozzotive® (cement-only). The spreadsheet and all EPDs used for these calculations are available for verification upon request.
Considering the substantial reduction in Global Warming Potential (GWP) for the project's concrete, using a regional SCM derived from local post-consumer recycled glass which promotes a circular economy, and the increased durability properties of concrete using GGP, we believe the Yale University Physical Science & Engineering building to be an excellent candidate for this award.
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