Following last month’s power outage in Texas, state legislators conducted hearings to sort out what happened and why. There was plenty of finger-pointing and little enlightenment. Power company executives laid […]
CALGreen requires the reuse, recycling, or salvage of at least 65% of the waste from construction and demolition. A previous blog discussed how to reuse water from concrete production. Another […]
Some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water with a reverence others might find excessive.—Joan Didion, “Holy Water”, 1977 Most of us learned in […]
To combat climate change, the cement industry has announced its 2050 Carbon Ambition, pledging to produce carbon-neutral concrete by 2050. What would it mean to have net zero concrete, and […]
For their senior design projects, engineering students at the University of St. Thomas analyze the ethical factors in accordance with the ABET criteria for student outcomes. These include “an ability to […]
We’ve previously discussed a new standard that promotes sustainability through the use of ground recycled glass in concrete. Now let’s get some background on ASTM C1866.* Most glass falls into […]
With increasing urban development and a changing climate, city governments need to consider new ways to manage stormwater. “It’s not easy being green,” a recent paper from the University of […]
The 2019 edition of the California Green Building Standards Code, also known as CALGreen, took effect at the beginning of this year. Its goals include: reducing greenhouse gas emissions from […]
Biomimicry comes in two forms. The first is simple imitation of the appearance of nature. The ancient Greeks proportioned their buildings according to the golden ratio φ = (1 +√5)/2, […]
Resilient engineering is design of infrastructure to withstand and recover from such major hazard events as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. It goes beyond design for life safety. It also […]