The First Facility Management Blog

While concrete is the most widely used building material, the production of some of its component materials accounts for up to 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions annually. To address the sustainability and environmental implications of the use of concrete in construction, MIT has announced the creation of the Concrete Sustainability Hub, a research center established at MIT in collaboration with the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) Research & Education Foundation.

The Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSH), established with the goal of accelerating emerging breakthroughs in concrete science and engineering and transferring that science into practice, will provide $10 million of sponsored research funding during the next five years. Researchers from MIT’s School of Engineering, School of Architecture and Planning, and Sloan School of Management are expected to participate in the CSH’s research activities.

Components of concrete (image courtesy of Portland Cement Association)

The launch of CSH on October 5, 2009 came a week after an announcement that the U.S. EPA is moving to enact rules that would curtail greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and large industrial manufacturers. If enacted, these rules would likely impose regulations on all 118 cement plants in the U.S. The RMC and PCA leaders expressed their hope that research results emerging from CSH projects will help ease the way for the industry to meet any changes that would be required by those new regulations.

“The concrete industry has the honor of producing the world’s most favored building material, but this honor comes with a responsibility for the industry to minimize its ecological footprint,” said Julie Garbini, executive director of the RMC Research & Education Foundation.

Brian McCarthy, CEO and president of PCA, added “The MIT research team is an exceptional group of dedicated interdisciplinary faculty and the CSH will take a holistic approach to research that allows science to feed seamlessly into today’s concrete applications like paving and wall systems. For ultimately, the greatest opportunity for the building industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may lay in the development of more durable and energy efficient roads, houses, and buildings.”

“This collaboration is an excellent example of how MIT is addressing complex, interconnected issues of sustainability–and working to provide solutions,” said Subra Suresh, Dean of Engineering and Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at MIT. “Putting engineers together with economists, urban planners, architects, and industry experts and practitioners on issues related to our built infrastructure will create truly novel opportunities for intervention.”

CSH research is initially be organized around three focus areas: concrete materials science, building technology, and the econometrics of sustainable development. The first two projects, “Green Concrete Science,” and “The Edge of Concrete: A Life-Cycle Investigation of Concrete and Concrete Structures” are already underway. Franz-Josef Ulm, the Macomber Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will serve as the CSH’s inaugural director and is the lead investigator on the Green Concrete Science project. The CSH will be co-directed by John Ochsendorf, Class of 1942 Career Development Associate Professor of Building Technology in the Department of Architecture and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. (Those interested in following the research can contact Denise Brehm, MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, brehm@mit.edu.)

“It is rare that one has an opportunity to have a positive environmental impact on the most prevalent building material in the world,” said Ulm. “This means working closely with industry partners over time to ensure that our ideas and research are sustainable economically, as well as environmentally, and are a source of job creation.”

Testwell Labs handled steel and concrete testing for projects around NYC, including the new Yankees Stadium (Photo: NY Times)

Yesterday (10/30/08), top executives, including company President, V. Reddy Kancharla and 11 others, from Testwell Laboratories of Ossining, NY were indicted for corruption charges related to falsified or incomplete test results. The company was responsible verifying the integrity for concrete and steel used in major building projects in and around the New York City area. High profile clients include the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site and the new Yankees Stadium–both currently under construction.

From The Associated Press:
Manhattan prosecutors have been investigating charges for months that Testwell falsified test results for projects or billed companies for tests it never did, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the indictment had not been released publicly. The company’s president, V. Reddy Kancharla, and other company officials are also named in the indictment. Charges will include corruption, fraud, and racketeering over a five year period.

So far, no structural integrity issues have been detected due to the “dummied” results (as many as 1,200 tests at 102 projects, according to a report in today’s New York Daily News), but random checks will be scheduled at affected building sites. Some industry experts think the doctored results may just degrade the long-term integrity of the materials, possibly causing the “structures to deteriorate faster.” (NY Daily News)

The company dominates the testing marketing in the New York metro area, and it holds approximately $12 million in pending contracts around the city. If convicted, the executives could face between 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison.