The document discusses tools developed to help local governments quantify and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cement and asphalt used in construction projects. These tools include a materials reporting form and greenhouse gas calculator to inventory emissions on a project level. The calculator can also be used to evaluate alternatives to determine how different strategies, like using supplementary cementitious materials or warm mix asphalt, could impact emissions and costs. Hypothetical case studies are presented to demonstrate how the tools work in evaluating alternatives for arterial roadway construction, a CSO basin, and a local park renovation project.

1. Quantifying and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from
Local Government Cement and Asphalt Purchasing
The Problem
Strategies for Reducing Emissions
Planning Techniques Engineering Technologies Policy Changes
Testing New Tools for Project-Level Analysis of GHG Emissions
Materials Reporting Form and GHG Calculator Alternatives EvaluationHypothetical Test-Case
Source: obec.com
Source: West Seattle Blog
Source: Wikipedia
Arterial Roadway Construction
CSO Basin
Local Park Renovation
In order to assist local governments in completing the five
milestones for climate mitigation, thesis thesis developed a
materials reporting form and greenhouse gas calculator to
inventory emissions from cement and asphalt on a project
level. The calculator can also be used during the design phase
to perform an alternatives evaluation to determine how
different use of the strategies above can result in differences in
GHG emissions and cost of materials.
To demonstrate how the reporting form and alternatives
evaulation work, the thesis performs an alternatives evaluation
for three hypothetical infrastructure projects .
Incorporating green infrastructure into
construction projects can reduce the
total amount of concrete used in a
project, thus reducing emissions.
Example: A road diet can incorporate
a bioswale in place of an extra lane.
Supplementary Cementitious
Materials such as Fly Ash and Blast
Furnace Slag can be substituted for
portland cement, in some cases at
rates of up to 80%, reducing emissions
by the same amount.
New asphalt manufacturing
technologies (Warm Mix Asphalt) can
reduce the energy needed for paving,
reducing emissions by 20-30%. Using
recycled aspahlt pavement and
shingles can further reduce emissions
from asphalt paving.Source: Design Sponge
Local governments can use a variety of
policy options to reduce these
emissions, including:
• Use incentive specifications that
reward contractors for using less
cement/using WMA and recycled
materials
• Require Environmental Product
Declarations from suppliers
• Require contractors to complete a
carbon control plan
• Use Alternatives Evaluation in project
design phase
Jake Tracy - 2015
Constructionmaterialslikecementandasphaltmakeupalargeportionoflocalgovernmentemissions...
but most local governments have not yet take action to quantify and reduce them.
Source: Good Company on Behalf of Alameda County Source: Good Company on Behalf of Alameda County Source: Good Company on Behalf of Portland Bureau of Transportation
Emissions by Scope Suppy Chain Emission by Source Emissions from Construction Materials