Staff toured a facility where waste glass is recycled into cement additives as a part of the Green Design, Resilience, and Wellness (GRoW) group’s annual Summer Series.
GRoW is KPF’s sustainability community group that promotes environmental design education for project teams and spearheads many of the firm’s sustainability initiatives. As a part of the firm’s commitment to sourcing sustainable building materials, the group facilitated a tour of Pozzotive’s ground-glass pozzolan manufacturing facility, where waste glass from demolition projects is recycled into a cement replacement material that can substantially reduce the carbon footprint of concrete.
“Every material decision is an opportunity to move our sustainability goals forward,” says Senior Environmental Performance Specialist Erin Heidelberger. “Concrete is one of the largest contributors to a building’s embodied carbon, and changes in how we specify it, such as by incorporating ground glass pozzolan, directly support the reductions we’ve committed to through the AIA Materials Pledge.”
