Central Concrete Joins as a Founding Member of USGBC-NCC Building Health Initiative

Central Concrete Supply Co., Inc., a business unit of U.S. Concrete, Inc., and the leader in delivering low-CO₂ concrete to the San Francisco Bay Area, has joined, as a founding member, a unique coalition of commercial building owners and tenants; architects, engineers and builders; building product manufacturers; legal professionals; labor and healthcare professionals and institutions to promote human health through green building.

The U.S. Green Building Council-Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC) officially launched the Building Health Initiative at its annual Super Heroes Awards Gala on Tuesday, October 29th. Featuring a diverse array of actions, the initiative will facilitate sharing of best practices and collaboration among its members.

As a founding member of the Carbon Leadership Forum, and now the Building Health Initiative, Central Concrete continues to drive standards, transparency, and actions that promote a more sustainable and healthy built environment. Central Concrete was the first ready-mix concrete supplier in the United States to offer Concrete EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) and the first to receive external verification of the EPDs in accordance with ISO 14025 and ISO 21930.

In addition to Central Concrete, founding members include Adobe, CalPERS, Genentech, Google, Kaiser Permanente, salesforce.com, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and 20 other corporations and institutions, committed to elevate green building as a public health benefit and accelerate the development of transparency standards in building materials.

“This is the first time major corporations and institutions from multiple sectors have come together to publicly commit to improving human health through green building,” said Dan Geiger, executive director of USGBC-NCC. “Each partner has pledged to implement new organizational actions that have direct effects and generate awareness of how the built environment affects our well-being. This is a tremendous stimulus for the movement for healthy communities for all.”

Initiative advisory board member Elizabeth Baca, M.D., M.P.A., a physician engaged in policy to improve the built environment, said, “there is a growing recognition in medicine that the built environment has significant health impacts. Physicians want to understand the underlying causes of their patients’ conditions. That’s why we ask, ‘Where do you work, live and play?’ It is imperative that the medical profession and building industries learn from one another about the health impacts of the built environment.”

As part of phase one of the initiative, Adobe, Genentech, Google and salesforce.com have pledged to develop procurement practices and processes that consider materials transparency and emerging standards such as Health Product Declarations (HPDs). In addition, Adobe will study its LEED certified workplaces to determine if they measurably contribute to more collaborative, creative, innovative and healthy employees. Other partner pledges include creating resources for affordable housing, community outreach, researching the relationship between climate change and health, educating clients and peers about health impacts of the built environment and developing Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

Phase two of the initiative will be a series of educational programs and events held over the next two years, including best practice sharing and inter-disciplinary programs developed with the founding partners.

Founding partners include:

Visionary
California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)
Genentech

Gold
Adobe
Google, Inc.
Hanson Bridgett LLP
Kaiser Permanente
Webcor Builders
Wendel Rosen Black and Dean, LLP
XL Construction

Silver
Armstrong World Industries, Inc.
ARUP
Central Concrete Supply Co., Inc., a business unit of U.S. Concrete, Inc.
HDR, Inc.
HOK
Integral Group
Interface, Inc.
National Electrical Contractors Association & the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
PE International
Perkins+Will
salesforce.com
Swinerton Builders
VIEW, Inc.

Non-profit & Government
City of San Francisco
First Community Housing
Health Begins
Healthy Building Network
University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

About U.S. Green Building Council-Northern California Chapter

U.S. Green Building Council-Northern California Chapter is the regional affiliate of USGBC. Home to approximately six percent of worldwide LEED® certified square footage, the Chapter encompasses most of Northern California and is the leading green building organization in the region. USGBC-NCC educates, inspires and provides resources for industry transformation to build and maintain sustainable communities.