American Concrete Pavement Association Announces White Paper to Support Sustainability

The American Concrete Pavement Association has released the white paper, “Concrete Pavement’s Role in a Sustainable, Resilient Future,” which synthesizes research on concrete pavement’s contributions to economic, environmental and social sustainability.

The report summarizes concrete pavement’s role in sustainability, including:

1. The long lifespan of concrete pavement, which provides the greatest economic value over the long term for taxpayers and end users. Concrete can last 30 years or more before requiring a maintenance cycle.
2. Research supporting concrete pavement’s many use-phase environmental and societal benefits, including improved fuel efficiency, high albedo (which improves the earth’s energy balance and urban heat island effect, both of which lead to cooling impacts and CO2 reduction) and CO2 absorption.
3. Examination of how the concrete pavement industry and others across the concrete value chain are working together to implement the PCA’s Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality, with a goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. (Examples include reducing cement’s carbon footprint using blended cements and reducing concrete’s carbon footprint using performance-engineered mixtures.)
4. The importance of lifecycle thinking in addressing social sustainability, particularly concrete pavement’s long life; its ability to withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly after a disruptive event; and good performance with minimal traffic disruption due to maintenance.