July 5, 2013 - Norfolk, Va. –Employees at the Powhatan Ready Mix Bryan Park Plant celebrated its official Green Star Certification on July 2 at the Bryan Park Plant in Richmond, Va. Also attending were community leaders, officials from parent company Titan America and National Ready Mix Concrete Association’s Vice President of Operations and Compliance, Gary Mullings. The event concluded with raising the official NRMCA Green Star flag.
The Bryan Park plant is one of the first ready mixed concrete facilities in the nation to be awarded NRMCA Green-Star Certification and it marks the fourth Titan America plant to be certified in Virginia. The objective of Green Star certification is reduce carbon footprint, energy consumption, water use and waste; increasing recycled content; and improving human health and social conditions. Plants can achieve between 0 and 100 points depending on how many sustainability credits are achieved and their level of performance within each credit. After a third-party audit, plants can obtain an NRMCA Sustainable Plant Certification.
Titan America, a large scale producer of ready mixed concrete with subsidiaries throughout much of the East Coast, is the parent company of Mechanicsville Concrete LLC, which operates as Powhatan Ready-Mix.
In addition to the Bryan Park plant, the following Titan facilities also received Bronze level certification: • Clear Brook Ready Mix Concrete Plant, Clear Brook, VA • Suffolk Ready Mix Concrete Plant, Suffolk, VA • Stafford Ready Mix Concrete Plant, Falmouth, VA.
Parent company Titan America was described by the National Ready-Mix Concrete Association as “One of the … most environmentally conscious Producer members (which has) has taken another step in demonstrating its commitment to sustainable business practices.”
“The green building movement continues to grow at a rapid pace despite the recent economic downturn,” said Lionel Lemay, senior vice president of sustainability for NRMCA. “Not only is it important for the concrete industry to develop and promote green building products and solutions, but it is critical that the industry continues to improve its production model to demonstrate leadership in sustainable manufacturing. By certifying its concrete plants, Titan America is demonstrating leadership in sustainable concrete manufacturing.”
The NRMCA Green-Star program has been designed by NRMCA’s Environmental Task Group, in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as a means to support the efforts of the ready mixed concrete industry toward environmental excellence through the recognition of the use of an Environmental Management Systems (EMS) as a tool for environmental benchmarking and continual improvement. It also is a means to recognize those who adhere to essential principals of the environmental and sustainability movement of our industry. As a responsible corporate citizen, a site that maintains the NRMCA Green-Star certification is dedicated further than compliance with the law. It also encompasses the integration of sound environmental practices into a company’s business decisions. An effective NRMCA Green-Star program is based on the integration of risk-based cost-effective management practices into site activities with the aim of continually improving environmental performance.
“As one of the first NRMCA Green-Star plants and now one of the first certified sustainable plants, the Bryan Park plant is a shining star for not only Titan but for all the ready mixed concrete industry,” added Mullings.
Titan America LLC is the premier heavy building materials producer in the eastern United States. Titan America’s products include cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and fly ash beneficiation. Its parent company, Titan Cement Company, S.A., headquartered in Athens, Greece, is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, a group of companies committed to sustainable and socially responsible business practices.