Education

NRMCA offers several courses on the design and construction of high performance concrete buildings. Target audiences include design professionals, government officials and developers.

Building Green with Concrete
This six-hour course provides detailed instruction on how to design with concrete to maximize environmental performance of buildings. It helps attendees utilize concrete building systems to design high performance buildings that conserve energy, maximize occupant comfort and lower environmental impact. The seminar also provides detailed background on low impact development including stormwater best management practices, green roofs and minimizing urban heat island reduction. The course also includes suggestions on how to incorporate optimal recycled content into concrete to balance environmental impact and long term durability. The course also provides details on how concrete can be used to meet LEED v4 requirements including the new Materials and Resources credits.

Economical Design of Concrete Buildings
This course presents information and tools that can be used by structural engineers and other design professionals to design and detail economical concrete buildings. Reinforced concrete has long been recognized as the material of choice for many building types including residential, hospitality, office, commercial, institutional, healthcare, and education. Inherent characteristics of reinforced concrete buildings are resistance to fire, natural disasters, and man-made disasters; durability; noise reduction; vibration resistance; and energy efficiency.  The main purpose of the course is to present information on how to select economical reinforced concrete framing systems including conventionally reinforced concrete, post-tensioned concrete, insulating concrete forming systems and tilt-up concrete to take advantage of concrete’s many benefits.

Disaster Resilience at the Local Level
Concrete has long been recognized as the material of choice for resilient construction. Resilience has become an important dimension of sustainability, and a key element of the value proposition for high performance because it recognizes both the immediate risks of extreme weather and the long-term effects of climate change. The green building movement has traditionally focused on the environmental aspects of the construction industry while balancing social considerations. Part 1 of this program will consider the impacts of disaster events, the benefits of hazard mitigation through resilience planning and why sustainability must now consider the effects of extreme weather.  In Part 2, the participants will contribute in a table-top exercise which assigns risks and consequences to their community. By understanding the local risks, the teams decide how to best utilize their tools and resources saving specified property and lives.

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