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Water is precious and necessary to sustain life. But because of climate change and other factors, water scarcity is growing. Some regions are already experiencing water shortages, and research shows the problem is only expected to expand in the decades ahead.
To achieve responsible environmental stewardship, building materials companies like Summit Materials need to reduce water consumption across their operations. Thankfully, there are steps both big and small that companies can take today to reduce water usage. With the right systems, processes and reduction measures, organizations can reduce water pull from municipal sources, help to ensure healthy ecosystems and aquifers, and in turn, reduce costs. Here’s why water conservation is so important for building materials companies and how organizations can reduce consumption to create a more sustainable future.
The importance of water conservation
Water scarcity has been called a “crisis” for good reason. According to estimates, “by 2030, the gap between global demand and supplies of fresh water is expected to reach 40%.” But it’s not just a global issue. The U.S. is already feeling the impacts of water scarcity, particularly in the West and Southwest. According to the EPA, 40 states are “expecting some freshwater shortages in the next 10 years.”
Water shortages can negatively impact everything from food production to manufacturing to everyday domestic use. That means everyone and every industry has a role to play in water conservation efforts. Because of the role water plays in aggregates, cement, concrete, asphalt and paving mixture production, building materials companies have a tremendous opportunity to impact water conservation efforts.
Water usage in the building materials industry
Building materials companies use water in various lines of business for any number of purposes. Some of those uses include dust suppression, stone washing, washout, cooling, equipment cleaning, human use, and in the case of ready-mix concrete, in the products themselves. That widespread usage adds up. By prioritizing water conservation and using innovative technologies and process improvements, organizations can achieve a meaningful reduction in water usage.
What building materials companies can do to conserve water
Here are just some of the ways companies like Summit Materials are working to reduce water consumption and promote sustainable environmental stewardship in the aggregates, cement concrete, and asphalt and paving industry.
Water metering and monitoring
Water conservation initiatives typically start with a baselining exercise to determine how much water is being used across an enterprise organization. Water metering can provide that benchmark by measuring water usage at all operating sites for all uses.
Companies can also consider tracking baseline water stress levels at all operating locations. Baseline water stress measures the ratio of total water withdrawals to available renewable surface and groundwater supplies. These ratios are then converted into risk scores defined by the World Resources Institute (WRI) ranging from low water stress (<10%) to extremely high-water stress (>80%). Understanding which locations are in areas of higher water stress can help business leaders manage risk and make better strategic decisions to protect company interests, local communities and the environment.
Wash water stabilization
While companies are establishing a baseline of current water consumption, operational improvements can start to be implemented, including wash water stabilization. With this technique, water used to wash equipment is recycled and used multiple times to cut down on the total water draw at a given location. In addition to the reduction in water used, there can be up to a 13-minute average reduction per truck in end-of-day wash out time, and up to a 50% reduction in chipping costs – saving water, time and money.
Load and Go Truck Wash systems
Finding ways to reduce water consumption in routine, everyday operations can be key to achieving sustainability goals. To that end, organizations may want to install Load and Go Ready Mix Truck Wash systems at operations sites. These automatic power washes for trucks can thoroughly clean equipment before it leaves a site while using a minimal amount of water. This type of technology is a water management tool as well as a safety feature.
Closed-loop systems
At Summit, we have developed and implemented water conservation programs and closed-loop water systems across our operations sites. These recycling measures are based on water that is reused many times to perform similar tasks, including washing vehicles, washing rock products, dust suppression and more. We can also use recycled water in our concrete production process. These projects not only save water use in daily operations, but produce cost savings by reducing nonproductive time at the end of the day.
Water conservation is a shared goal
Water conservation is a global issue. But we believe there is a path forward to a more sustainable future. By taking stock of water consumption and introducing new operational processes, building materials companies can reduce water usage in aggregates, cement, concrete, asphalt and paving mixture production and help create more sustainable communities.
To learn more about Summit’s corporate sustainability program, download our 2021 ESG Report or contact us for more information.
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The building materials industry has an environmental impact that extends well beyond quarry sites. From extraction machinery known as “yellow iron” to cement kilns and other production equipment to transportation vehicles, there are many parts of the aggregates, cement, concrete and asphalt paving value chain that generate carbon emissions.
As an industry, it’s important for organizations to find ways to reduce those emissions to help build a more sustainable future. At Summit Materials, our goal is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and we’ve launched a number of initiatives to help us achieve that target. From product innovations to new alternative fuels, here are some of the top ways we believe that building materials companies can reduce carbon emissions in cement and concrete production.
Portland Limestone Cement
Cement manufacturers have a tremendous opportunity to reduce carbon emissions through the use of Portland Limestone Cement (PLC). This modified formulation is a blended cement with a higher limestone content, which means the product performs the same as traditional portland cement, but with a 10% reduction in the product’s carbon footprint, on average.
Concrete mixes designed with PLC are also compatible with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). So, when substituting PLC for ordinary portland cement, organizations can continue to use all the other materials used to make concrete for an even greater reduction in carbon emissions.
Use of alternative fuels
Converting cement processing plants to run on alternative fuels can be an effective strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Conversions are possible using existing technology available today, and plants can be designed to use a variety of fuel sources.
At Summit, our cement plant in Hannibal, Missouri, processes both liquid and solid hazardous waste as a fuel source. This provides an important service to customers, for which we charge, in addition to the benefit we receive from incinerating the material as a fuel source. Our facility in Davenport, Iowa, uses alternative fuels from surrounding industrial facilities, including items like off-spec seeds, used tires, used oil, byproducts from nearby manufacturing and materials that would otherwise be landfilled. On average, 39.8% of Summit’s cement plants’ energy came from alternative fuel in 2021, compared to an industry average of around 25%. As technology advances, organizations should make efforts to accept more diverse materials as fuel alternatives and increase the overall percentage of alternative fuels being used.
Fuel emissions technology in fleet vehicles
Building materials companies operate a lot of heavy machinery and transportation vehicles, which in turn burn a lot of fuel. So, having better insights into that total fuel usage and efficiency can be an important step toward reducing carbon emissions overall. Organizations may want to consider adding fuel consumption tracking systems to over-the-road vehicles. There are a number of third-party solutions available that can help companies better understand fuel consumption, emissions and active versus idle time. From there, leaders can identify opportunities for driver training or equipment upgrades to reduce carbon emissions across the entire fleet.
Summit is using telematics by Samsara to track both safety performance by fuel efficiency and emissions per vehicle. This will help us set targets for longer term reduction of emissions and ultimately cost through more efficient operations, lower maintenance costs and better safety performance.

Sustainable concrete
For building materials companies that produce concrete, there are new product innovations that can help reduce carbon emissions without compromising performance. For example, organizations may want to consider CarbonCure’s sustainable concrete technology. CarbonCure injects a precise dosage of carbon dioxide (CO2) into concrete during mixing. The CO2 then undergoes a chemical reaction and converts into a mineral. This CO2 mineralization process improves the concrete’s performance and compressive strength, enabling the reduction of cementitious content in mix designs, which in turn can help reduce the producer’s carbon footprint. By experimenting with new technologies like CarbonCure, concrete production companies can potentially curb emissions without substantively changing products or making widespread changes to production processes.
Carbon offsets
When it’s not feasible to reduce carbon emissions through process or product innovations, carbon offsets present a potential path to reduce an organization’s total carbon footprint. Carbon offsets can take any number of forms, including everything from financing the construction of a wind turbine to buying cleaner burning stoves for people in developing countries. While working toward more permanent decarbonization solutions should be the long-term goal, carbon offsets can be a valuable way for building materials companies to achieve corporate sustainability goals in the interim and make a meaningful, positive impact on the environment.
Generator to electric and line power conversions
Aggregates quarries tend to be far from the power grid. Therefore, diesel generator power is often used for extraction and transportation equipment. Generator to line power conversions at aggregates plants can accelerate the path to renewable energy. Through the routine capital equipment replacement cycle, building products companies should consider line power or electric machinery as an alternative to diesel powered, which can save on operating costs and maintenance in addition to reducing emissions.
Committed to corporate sustainability and environmental stewardship
There’s no avoiding the fact that aggregates, cement, concrete and asphalt paving production has an impact on the environment. But that impact can be lessened with the right approach. Summit is committed to addressing carbon emissions in our operations. By leveraging existing technology to improve products and production processes while keeping an eye toward future innovations, producers can address carbon emissions and practice real environmental stewardship that benefits local communities and the planet.
To learn more about Summit’s corporate sustainability program, download our 2021 ESG Report or contact us for more information.
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We are disciplined in our approach to safety. Across all business lines, functions, and companies, we aim for a world-class safety program and consistently work hard to achieve this goal. We incorporate workplace organization tools, like 5S (sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain), to increase efficiencies and maintain safe working spaces for our employees. Routine risk assessments and our safety policies and principles provide a framework for decision-making and help ensure that all tasks are carried out with employee and workplace safety top of mind. From an educational and training standpoint, we hold weekly safety meetings, regular training sessions, and ‘tool box talks’ to foster and maintain an open dialogue regarding safety issues and continue to cultivate a culture where safety is always top of mind and is everyone’s responsibility.
As a strategic incentive to strengthen safety performance, all Summit Materials employees’ and executives’ bonuses are tied to Summit Materials’ and our companies’ end of year safety results. Additionally, our top performing companies and facilities are rewarded each year with highly competitive internal awards to incentivize performance throughout various aspects of the safety program.
In recent years, our leadership teams have been recognized by national and state organizations for their innovative ideas and commitment to safety in the workplace. Safety Leadership Teams have empowered our employees to analyze everyday tasks and make them safer and more efficient for the entire organization. During any given week, there is at least one team at each company taking time away from their daily tasks to analyze, discuss, and ultimately, reduce hazards.