LEARNING CENTER 2025 ON-DEMAND
Concrete Innovations Learning Center On-demand provides recordings and downloads for previously aired Learning Sessions on the latest innovations for sustainable concrete design, construction and manufacturing. Select a year for on-demand learning sessions:
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CONTINUING EDUCATION
Each session of the Concrete Innovations Learning Center offers AIA Continuing Education and Professional Development Hours. Complete the form provided for each session to receive credits.
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SESSION 29: MAY 14, 2025 | RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION INITIATIVES
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The Case for Resilience: Defined Pathways for Achievement
Over the past several decades, there has been a continuous increase in human and economic loss from disaster events. This panel will review the imperative for building resilience and discuss initiatives and frameworks to support resilient construction. The adoption of updated codes and standards are a first step to approach resilient design objectives, particularly resilience to fire disaster events. The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub studies how cities can be made more resilient to hazards through investment in stronger and cooler construction. The US Resiliency Council’s Building Performance Ratings identify resilient design strategies for architects and designers. FORTIFIED is a voluntary construction incentive program designed to strengthen homes and commercial buildings against specific types of severe weather such as high winds, hail, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Panelists include:
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Shamim Rashid-Sumar, P.E., FSFPE, Senior Vice President, Codes and Standards, NRMCA (moderator)
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Evan Reis, S.E., Executive Director of the US Resiliency Council DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Hessam AzariJafari, Ph.D., Deputy Director, MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Brian Meacham, Ph.D., P.E., Director of Risk and Regulatory Consulting, Crux Consulting DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Mary Uher, FORTIFIED Director of Field Services DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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New LEED v5 Resilience Requirements
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Julian Mills-Beale, Ph.D., Director, Codes and Standards, NRMCA
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LEED v5 includes significant updates to transportation, site, energy, materials, and indoor environmental quality credits, and also includes a new resilience assessment prerequisite and credits rewarding resilience design features. This presentation will provide definitions for key resilience concepts, outline the new resilience prerequisites and credits in LEED, and discuss how concrete can play a role in meeting the new requirements.
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SESSION 31: JULY 16, 2025 | LEED v5: GREEN BUILDING REDEFINED
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CONTINUING EDUCATION FORM​​
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Concrete's Contribution to LEED v5​ | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Tiffany Reed-Villarreal, Director, Sustainability Codes and Standards, NRMCA and
Matthew Lemay, Manager, Codes and Sustainability Programs, NRMCA
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The LEED green building rating system has been instrumental in minimizing environmental impacts within the built environment. By promoting sustainable design and operations, it has transformed the construction industry. LEED operates on a credit-based system, awarding points for environmentally friendly strategies. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) continually raises the bar with each new version. LEED v5 extends beyond current structures—it establishes a foundation for a more sustainable future, emphasizing decarbonization, quality of life, and ecological conservation. This forward-thinking framework encourages near-zero carbon buildings while prioritizing equity, resilience, and the safe, responsible use of resources. This presentation provides an overview of LEED v5 credits and explores how innovative concrete products and systems can contribute to LEED certification.
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Product Spotlight - Climate Earth
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EPDs Made Easy: Automating LEED Credit Optimization with Climate Earth Advantage Pro | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
Chris Erickson, Founder and Chairman, Climate Earth
EPD Advantage-Pro by Climate Earth streamlines LEED v5.0 alignment for concrete producers, automating mix-specific EPDs and whole-project reporting. With tools built around ACI 323 and LEED’s evolving decarbonization metrics, producers can instantly assess and improve embodied carbon performance. This talk reveals how automation not only simplifies compliance but empowers mix optimization for maximum points—turning sustainability from a burden into a strategic advantage.
Product Spotlight - Concrete Sustainability Council
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CSC Certified Concrete: Advancing Responsibly Sourced Materials for Sustainable Buildings | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Christian Artelt, Heidelberg Materials and Michael Scharpf, Holcim
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As Green Building standards like LEED v5 evolve to emphasize decarbonization, equity, and material stewardship, responsible sourcing is increasingly gaining impact in Green Building certification. This presentation highlights how CSC-certified concrete can strengthen project compliance with evolving Green Building requirements, ensuring a measurable contribution to evolving sustainable construction practices worldwide.​​
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SESSION 30: JUNE 18, 2025 | CARBON CAPTURE AND UTILIZATION
​​CONTINUING EDUCATION FORM​​
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​​​​Co-Decarbonizing Construction and Energy: Scalable Pathways through Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
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Dr. Jiaqi Li, PhD, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
The convergence of construction and energy decarbonization offers a scalable pathway to significantly reduce global COâ‚‚ emissions. Emerging carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) strategies can harness industrial symbiosis to drive deep decarbonization across both sectors. This webinar highlights scalable, industrially viable solutions, including: (1) mineral carbonation of abundant, nonconventional amorphous silicates to produce supplementary cementitious materials; (2) biologically derived binders that link concrete production with biofuel generation; (3) incorporation of solid carbon from hydrocarbon pyrolysis to enhance material performance; and (4) electrochemical processes that co-produce cementitious materials and clean fuels. Together, these approaches offer promising routes to scale CCUS solutions by bridging materials innovation and energy transformation.
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Product Spotlight - Chryso
Transforming Construction through Decarbonization, Circular Economy and Material Innovation.
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Cesar A. Constantino, PhD, FACI, FASTM, Senior Director Innovation, Chryso | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
This presentation will underscore Chryso’s commitment to sustainability through decarbonization and the circular economy. We will showcase advanced tools, analysis methods, and mix optimization with innovative admixtures. Key topics include addressing the declining quality of sand, pioneering advancements in strength enhancers, and developing solutions for new cements, all illustrated through customer case studies that tackle carbon reduction using multiple strategies.
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Concrete as a Carbon Sink: Cement Carbonation Tracking and the Rise of Multifunctional Concrete​
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Dr. Admir Masic, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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LConcrete is the most widely used construction material, and the carbon-intensive production of cement- its key ingredient - accounts for nearly 8% of global COâ‚‚ emissions. To meet the urgent need for decarbonization, we must rethink concrete’s role in the built environment. In this talk, Dr. Masic will explore how novel cement chemistries and advanced analytical techniques - particularly Raman spectroscopy - are enabling the development of multifunctional concretes. From COâ‚‚-sequestering formulations to Roman-inspired self-healing cements and electrically conductive energy-storing systems, these innovations position concrete not just as a structural material but as a carbon sink and functional infrastructure component for a more sustainable future.
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SESSION 32: AUG 20, 2025 | ACHIEVING LOW-CARBON INFRASTRUCTURE
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CONTINUING EDUCATION FORM​​
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Improving Concrete Pavement Sustainability – Thinking Beyond the Materials | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Jim Mack, Pavement Consultant
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While sustainable concrete pavements are often pursued through mix design improvements—such as using less cement or lower-COâ‚‚ binders—significant gains can also come from choosing the appropriate structural design features for the application. Tailoring elements like layer thickness, slab geometry, base types, and joint spacing to actual performance needs can lower both initial and life cycle environmental impacts. Additionally, the use phase often contributes the most to a pavement’s total global warming potential (GWP), where concrete’s inherent stiffness, light color (albedo), smoothness, and durability provide long-term COâ‚‚ savings. This presentation will show how leveraging these properties through smart design choices can significantly reduce lifetime emissions.
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Product Spotlight - Heidelberg Materials
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What's Next in Low-Carbon Concrete | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
Larry Rowland, Sustainability Market Manager - North America, Heidelberg Materials
The landscape of low-carbon concrete options for designers and producers is becoming more diverse with each passing month. This presentation will discuss several new technologies that deliver deep decarbonization at the source materials. Technologies such as carbon capture and storage, calcined clay cement and carbon uptake processes that utilize recycled concrete paste will be highlighted.
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Product Spotlight - Sika
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Holistic Approach for Alternative Cements - New SikaGrind and SikaViscoCrete Technologies | DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Nuno Maia, Director – Key Accounts & Cement Additives, Sika Corporation
Suzanne Lianopoulos, Director- Marketing & Sustainability, Sika Corporation
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Everything is connected. Sika embraces a systems-thinking approach smartly tailored to meet the evolving needs of the cement and concrete producers alike. As the industry shifts towards more sustainable solutions, new challenges arise.
Join us to explore how Sika’s holistic approach and integrated technologies—SikaGrind® for cement processing and Sika® ViscoCrete®-1100 for concrete optimization—deliver performance, efficiency, and reliability across the entire value chain.
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SESSION 28: APRIL !6, 2025 | PRIVATE SECTOR DECARBONIZATION INITIATIVES
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Panel Discussion: How Decarbonization Initiatives are Creating Demand for Low-Carbon Concrete
This panel features four private sector initiatives designed to increase demand for low-carbon construction and more specifically, low-carbon concrete. The World Economic Forum’s First Movers Coalition (FMC), is a private sector demand-focused initiative in heavy-emitting industrial sectors, seeking to surface the scaled supply of deeply decarbonized products and services through a strong, credible demand focus. Amazon has made an ambitious commitment to reach net-zero carbon across its global operations by 2040 as part of its co-founding of The Climate Pledge. The SE 2050 Challenge is an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) initiative to transform the practice of structural engineering by prioritizing reduction of embodied carbon, through the use of less and/or less impactful structural materials, participating firms can more easily work toward net zero embodied carbon structural systems by 2050. Architecture 2030’s mission is to rapidly transform the built environment from the major emitter of greenhouse gases to a central solution to the climate crisis. Panelists include:
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Vincent Martinez, President and COO, Architecture 2030 DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Genevieve Graham, Engineer, Arup | Vice Chair SE 2050 DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Daniel Boero Vargas, Industry Decarbonization Lead, Cement & Concrete, World Economic Forum DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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Tim Lewis, Sustainability Structural Engineer, Amazon DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
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​Product Spotlight - Climate Earth
Concrete Solutions: Reducing Carbon with Advanced EPD Databases
Laurel McEwen, Executive VP EPD Services, Climate Earth
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In this talk, we explore how cutting-edge technologies are transforming data collection and utilization of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) databases, dramatically reducing setup times and enhancing data use. By integrating mix designs with comprehensive EPD data, we create powerful databases that empower concrete producers to develop low-carbon solutions. We will discuss how data access through advanced APIs, and database-driven analysis promotes transparency, aids in making informed sustainable choices, and showcases the industry's commitment to carbon reduction goals.