Armen Alajian also recently attended Committee Week for the National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA)
The NPCA represents manufacturers of diverse precast products ranging from septic tanks and utility boxes to decorative wall panels and architectural details. Armen is an active member of the Sustainability Committee which is responsible for developing standards to minimize the environmental impacts of these products and their manufacturing. The committee also works to promote awareness of these efforts and the sustainable qualities of precast concrete within the architectural and design communities.
The Sustainability Committee is developing a sustainable plant certification process and voted to create Sustainability Awards to recognize projects that best incorporate these aspects of precast concrete. Other topics discussed were the recent postponement of LEED 2012 (renamed LEED v4) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) which are essentially “nutrition labels” that can be used to compare environmental impacts of different materials. Product Category Rules (PCR) can be material specific and used to set parameters for both EPDs and LCAs (life cycle analysis).
The Sustainability Committee is also developing a new AIA CES course on the topic and will be contributing content for a new column on sustainability for Precast Solutions magazine. Visit the NPCA website for more information on the sustainable aspects of precast concrete products plus other resources for architects and design professionals.
