Ozinga Awarded USGBC Emerald Award for Green Building Innovation

Following extensive testing, Ozinga has been using CarbonCure technology to optimize its carbon footprint.

Ozinga has been named the winner of the 12^th Annual Illinois Emerald Award for Green Building Innovation for its work with CarbonCure.

The U.S. Green Building Council-Illinois (USGBC-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.

CarbonCure The CarbonCure system is installed at Ozinga’s downtown Chicago ready-mix plant.

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 optimize its carbon footprint.

CarbonCure recycles carbon dioxide gas 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. CarbonCure is truly revolutionary and we look forward to seeing more construction projects built in Chicago using Ozinga concrete made with recycled CO₂,” said Patricia Lloyd, Vice-Chair of USGBC-Illinois and Sustainability Manager for Leopardo Companies, Inc.

Ozinga will be recognized among other sustainability leaders at Limelight on May 18 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 at Ozinga.

For more information regarding Limelight, visit here.