Videos, Webinars & More

Communication is a key link in the chain when it comes to measuring the 5 C’s - Construction, Carbonation, Concrete, Cement, and Clinker.

Join Shawn Kalyn, B.eng LEED AP bd+c, Sustainability and Technical Marketing – North America, Votorantim Cimentos, to discuss the American Cement Association (ACA) and the Cement Association of Canada (CAC), concrete roadmap 2030 and 2050 goals and implementation. Integrating new innovations in cement and concrete production involves using metrics like environmental product declarations (EPDs) and material solutions to connect and communicate solutions from cement manufacturing decarbonization to blended cements with supplementary materials to concrete plants transportation and material efficiency to carbon budgeting optimization solutions in construction. The designers and owners are key to the progression and the ability of the concrete industry to decarbonize.

The roadmap journey to be successful requires collaboration, education, and communication with many stakeholders, including policy makers, the standards organizations, design professionals, end users, and society as a whole. Road bumps can occur along the way, but thoughtful communication between all stakeholders will help move society forward and assist us in adapting to new sustainability challenges.

Mike Fedorco, Ash Grove Cement, will provide an overview of the state of blended cements and discuss several of their most recent innovative products, including Duracem F and Duracem N. The presentation will include highlights of applications and uses to date.

Presenter
Mike Fedorco is the Director of Customer Solutions at Ash Grove Cement, where he is responsible for delivering innovative customer solutions through new product development and product optimization. His work is focused on advancing the use of blended cements to meet evolving industry needs. With over 20 years of experience in the building materials industry, Mike has developed deep expertise across product management, new product development, technical services, and sales. His broad background enables him to bridge technical innovation with practical customer applications, helping drive value for both customers and the business.

Electric arc furnace slags (EAFS) are by-products of electric steelmaking processes. In 2024, approximately 30% of global steel produced out via the EAF route, generating an estimated 283 Mt of EAFS annually. This volume is expected to rise as major European steel producers continue the electrification of their operations to reduce CO2 emissions.

Despite their significant CaO and SiO2 contents, EAFS currently have no established use as supplementary cementitious materials. Their limited reactivity, coupled with the absence of relevant certifications and standards for construction materials, has been a key barrier to their use. Over the past three years, however, advancements in granulation, chemical modification, and carbonation have demonstrated technically and economically viable pathways for incorporating EAFS as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs).

This presentation will outline the technical advantages, remaining challenges, and current technological readiness of the principal EAFS-to-SCM beneficiation strategies.

Modern concrete must simultaneously satisfy evolving demands for mechanical performance, workability, durability, and sustainability, making mix designs increasingly complex. Recent studies with AI and ML models show promise in predicting compressive strength and guiding mix optimization. However, they rely largely on proprietary industrial datasets and closed-source models. Here we introduce an open-source AI model trained on a new open-access dataset comprising 500+ diverse strength measurements (1–15 ksi) from 123 mortar (69) and concrete (54) mixes tested across five ages (1, 3, 5, 14, and 28 days). This high-fidelity dataset was generated at University of Illinois by importing all concrete ingredients from a specific data center site in Minnesota. Using Gaussian Process Regression combined with Bayesian Optimization, our AI model was able to reliably forecast strength-development trajectories while quantifying predictive uncertainty (R² = 0.95 and RMSE = 670 psi). Finally, the AI model enabled generation of optimized mix recipes with lower CO2 footprint and higher performance compared to the baseline mix. These recipes were then deployed in critical sections (floor slabs) of the data center, scheduled to open in 2026. This openly shared dataset and model, and its deployment in a real-world setting establishes a promising foundation for future data-driven strength forecasting and mix optimization.

This presentation provides an overview of Ozinga strategy to implement a successful Low Carbon Concrete initiative. It focuses on the key steps taken and lessons learned on specific projects, including a tilt up panel pilot project in St. Louis, MO, to full scale application and construction of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center campus project in Indiana.

This presentation discusses employing rigorous laboratory testing and small-scale demonstrations to achieve success when using low carbon concrete in construction. Carbon reduction is achieved by reducing portland cement clinker in concrete, replacing it in the binder with alternative cements and/or supplementary cementitious materials and by reducing the total cementitious content in the concrete through aggregate optimization. This often results in concrete mixtures that behave differently than those traditionally provided by suppliers and placed by contractors. This presentation emphasizes the need to conduct rigorous laboratory testing to evaluate fresh and hardened concrete properties beyond traditional testing, paying special attention to workability, bleeding, setting, and thermal characteristics as well as early strength gain, shrinkage, and other hardened properties. The use of full-scale demonstrations are suggested to ensure that the means and methods of concrete production and construction are well-suited to placement of the low embodied carbon concrete to avoid surprises once construction begins.