Full Title: Guidance for Developing Performance Standards and Specifications for Concrete: Suggestions for stakeholder Roles and Test Options to Trial PSS on a Next Project
Author(s): Kelly Wu and Heather House
Publisher(s): Rocky Mountain Institute
Publication Date: December 16, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Performance standards and specifications (PSS) — which focus on desired properties rather than recipes — have long been highlighted as enabling sustainability, reducing costs, and improving both the durability and performance of cement and concrete in the construction industry. However, adoption has been slowed by bottlenecks, such as the need to develop a suite of specifications that can substantially help guarantee concrete performance and the need to develop better durability and long-term performance tests.
In the United States, the movement away from ordinary Portland cement (OPC) to blended cements like Portland Limestone Cement (PLC) and Limestone Calcined Clay cement (LC3), combined with increasing considerations of project Global Warming Potential (GWP), mean that now is the time to overcome these bottlenecks and develop PSS. Ultimately, a standard PSS that specifies key tests, parameters, and roles can help unlock scalable, replicable, and efficient construction in a diversified low-carbon concrete future.