Concrete and Sustainability / LEED

CWE has a research and development team dedicated to always improving the sustainability of our concrete products. Our experience collaborating with architects and designers on LEED-rated projects has given us active involvement with LEED guidelines, and has allowed us to effectively address environmental issues during our design process. Our ability to incorporate aggregate substitutes and limit the VOC content enables us to produce a more sustainable and environmentally friendly product. We have been specified on many LEED-rated projects. We custom-make all of our products, therefore an architect or designer can issue a spec that includes specific LEED requirements to a project and we then create our mix design based on the requirements; we also assist in filling out the required LEED paperwork provided by the client. Cornell University, Garden St Lofts in Hoboken NJ, and Rhinebeck NY Residence e are projects that Concreteworks East has participated in that have received a LEED rating. The following are areas in which our architectural concrete products may assist a project in acquiring a LEED Rating.

Materials and Resources:

Recycled Content

A unique benefit of a custom made concrete piece is that the client can have any amount of recycled content added (up to a responsible %). CWE can substitute many different recycled products to reach the LEED certification requirements, depending on the client’s desired finished look. Some additives that constitute as recycled content include; fly ash, recycled glass and plastics, rice hulls, slag cement, post consumer material, industrial byproducts and more. Some of these products can be added at up to 80% of the mix,creating a product with an 80% recycled content.

Regional Materials

ConcreteWorks East custom manufactures our architectural concrete products here in our shop in Central New Jersey. Most of our materials for fabrication are acquired within 100 miles from our shop, well within USGBC’s 500 mile limit for LEED credit for major cities such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore.

Indoor Environmental Quality

Low Emitting Materials

Many of our sealers used on our concrete products have no VOC content, leading to zero emissions. With architectural concrete, this is universal is many applications to low VOC flooring systems by using a poured in place concrete floor to low VOC furniture systems and seating by using concrete table tops and etc.

Misc.

Architectural concrete can be manufactured to a wide range of customs colors including bright whites and light greys; perfect for an interior concrete floor in helping increase daylighting reflection within spaces.