The world population is growing, and with an ever-larger number of building requirements, it has become increasingly important to minimise our environmental impact through the use of correct materials such as low or reduced Embodied Carbon (EC) products.
Firth concrete products offer the combination of reduced EC with the highest quality standards ensuring strength, performance, appearance, and workability are maintained. All Firth’s products are formulated to meet strict NZ standards.
“Our aim is to take an approach of measuring ourselves and having a roadmap towards continuous improvements,” says Dene Cook, Firth’s Technical Manager. “Because if you can’t measure it yourself and it’s not verified, or it’s not something people can trust, then it’s really hard to realise a low carbon outcome for the project”.
He also adds Firth concrete is ahead of expectations, with their standard concrete going out already at a minimum EC10 level (10%) to EC20 (20%) reduced carbon, dependent on the region. Firth’s new EcoMix®, comes with a rating of EC20 (a carbon reduction from 20% to 40%) and EcoMix®+ for carbon savings upwards of 40% against the EC baseline, while maintaining current strength, performance, appearance, and workability characteristics.
Firth is using their leading position in the concrete industry to meet customer demand for low carbon concrete mixes. Firth’s Embodied Carbon Concrete Calculator (EC³) allows the company to design customer-specific low-carbon concrete mixes that still tick all the boxes for strength and durability. With the EC³ tool, Firth can design mixes to meet customers’ desired EC rating and thus make a meaningful contribution to the low carbon efforts of the construction industry as a whole.
For more information, see https://www.firth.co.nz/concrete/low-carbon-concrete/.