Ozinga has won the 12th Annual Illinois Emerald Award for Green Building Innovation for its work with CarbonCure.
The US Green Building Council-Illinois announced the winners of the Emerald Awards, which showcase the best and brightest contributors to a more sustainably built environment by recognizing outstanding individuals, organizations, projects and technologies.
Ozinga is a fourth-generation family-owned American business providing ready mix concrete products to Chicago and the surrounding area since 1928.
Ozinga installed CarbonCure's technology at its Chicago Chinatown plant in September 2016. Following extensive testing, Ozinga has been using the technology to reduce its carbon footprint.
[caption id="attachment_82410" align="alignleft" width="300"]
The CarbonCure system installed at Ozinga’s
downtown Chicago concrete plant[/caption]
CarbonCure recycles carbon dioxide gas (CO2) that would otherwise be released as pollution from nearby industrial emitters. The technology injects CO2 into Ozinga’s concrete mix, where it chemically converts into a mineral and becomes permanently captured in the concrete.
The process helps to improve Ozinga's concrete compressive strength, which enables the company to further optimize its manufacturing process to achieve greater carbon reductions.
“On behalf of the USGBC-Illinois, I want to congratulate Ozinga and CarbonCure on winning this year’s Emerald Award for Green Building Innovation," said Patricia Lloyd, vice-chair of US Green Building Council-Illinois and sustainability manager for Leopardo Companies.
"CarbonCure is truly revolutionary and we look forward to seeing more construction projects built in Chicago using Ozinga concrete made with recycled CO2,” Lloyd said.
Ozinga will be recognized among other sustainability leaders at Limelight on May 18, 2017 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. Tickets to the event and presentation of the Emerald Awards are currently available to the public online.
“We are honored to be selected as an Emerald Award recipient and look forward to the opportunities to use CarbonCure in conjunction with our other sustainable technologies in the production of ready mix concrete,” said Ryan Cialdella, vice president of research and development, Ozinga.
