Rural Builder - Summer 2010

ut of all the new infrastructure projects showcased at the 21st Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver’s Olympic and Paralympic Village used to house the competitions’ 2,800 athletes and officials must have been one of the most impressive. Its construction, completed at the end of 2009, involved all of Lafarge’s expertise in LEED certification, which was required by the specifications to reduce the buildings’ environmental footprint in terms of energy efficiency, water consumption and heating, while using local materials and reusing of any surplus. These sustainable design specifications required the concrete have an 80 percent recycled content value.

Several formulations of high-volume fly ash concrete (developed using tests conducted in Lafarge laboratories as well as LEED assessment calculations) made a strong contribution to meeting the cost, performance and sustainability requirements. Derived from burning coal in electric utility plants, fly ash can be used as a supplementary cementitious material for improving the strength, durability, workability and other properties of concrete. In addition to its many economic and performance advantages, fly ash use in concrete is good for the environment as it saves virgin raw materials and makes use of an industrial by-product that might otherwise be disposed of in landfills. It also allows concrete producers to optimize their use of portland cement, thereby reducing the carbon footprint and lowering the embodied energy of concrete.

With eight complexes distributed over a 90-acre former industrial waterfront property, the impressive 600,000-square foot village, containing more than 600 dwelling units is the first phase in an immense project to redevelop the South-East False Creek area near downtown Vancouver. With the recent conclusion of the Paralympic Games, the environmentally friendly village will now be sold to the public and become a

fully integrated, socially inclusive community that will be home to 16,000 people. Plans call for 250 affordable housing units, a 45,000-square foot community center, three child care centers, an elementary school, community garden, public plaza, and much more. By design, LEED-certified green buildings have operational efficiencies that make the facilities cheaper for the community to operate as a legacy to be enjoyed for generations.

ABOUT LAFARGE

The Lafarge Group is the world leader in building materials, with top-ranking positions in all of its busi-nesses: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete and Gypsum. With 78,000 employees in 78 countries, the Group posted sales of 15. 9 billion Euros in 2009. Lafarge North America Inc. (“Lafarge North America” or “ Lafarge”), a Lafarge Group company, is the largest diversified supplier of construction materials in the United States and Canada.

In 2010 and for the sixth year in a row, the Lafarge Group was listed in the “Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World.” With the world’s leading building materials research facility, the Lafarge Group places innovation at the heart of its priorities, working for sustainable construction and architectural creativity.