Five Reasons Why Sustainability is Important to You: Part 2

By: Claude Goguen, P.E., LEED AP

As you read in part one of this post, embracing sustainability makes good business sense because it can save you money and it’s a movement that’s here to stay. You need to be prepared to answer sustainability-related questions the specifier on a future project is bound to ask. In part two, I focus on precast concrete’s natural benefits and how NPCA is here to help.

Precast concrete has inherent green properties
If you look at our LEED ® reference guide, you’ll see that precast concrete offers many advantages to specifiers and contractors, such as the use of regional materials and recycled content, as well as minimized site disturbance. If you add that to green practices at your production facility, you suddenly become an attractive option to green-minded potential customers.

NPCA is on your side and ready to help
NPCA has benefited from visionaries who saw this approaching shift years ago, and set out to make sure that the association is prepared. The sustainability committee was formed and has worked hard to educate members on how to market the sustainable attributes of their products. They created an online LEED ® calculator to help members involved in LEED ® projects. The committee is now busier than ever getting ready to hand out the inaugural Sustainability Awards at The Precast Show 2013 in Indianapolis.

NPCA runs a regular “Green Piece” column in Precast Inc. magazine, and the Sustainability Committee is currently engaged in creating a Sustainability Plant Certification program and sustainability-themed education courses as well. In addition to internal efforts, NPCA has joined the Concrete Joint Sustainability Initiative, a coalition of associations who are also heavily engaged in promoting sustainability of concrete and is about to exhibit at its third Greenbuild conference, being held this year in San Francisco in mid-November. Greenbuild is the largest conference and expo dedicated to the green building market.

So whether you are an environmentalist or just a small business owner who wants to remain current and maximize business opportunities, it makes sense to look into adopting sustainability in your operation. Don’t forget that NPCA is here to help you take that first step.