Images of huge yellow equipment; hot, smelly products; and moving mountains of dirt, don’t conjure perceptions of a green industry. However, like innumerable American industries, the pavement business has made great strides in being green corporate citizens.
MAINTAIN! The simplest way to conserve resources is to maintain your pavement. Ongoing maintenance with regular applications of crackfiller and sealcoat tremendously extends pavement life. This life extension can extend the time before complete reconstruction is necessary by as much as ten years. That’s ten years of reduced mining (aggregates), CO2 emissions (manufacturing), and landfill usage (dumping). As an added bonus, maintenance is approximately 1/5 the cost of reconstruction.
RECYCLE! Several advances in the pavement industry now allow for recycling of existing materials to be reused right on the construction site. Ask your GPM representative about the possibility of recycling on your pavement project.
ENVIRO-ENGINEERING! For larger, more complex projects, constructing (or reconstructing) initial design and specification can have a tremendous impact on the finished environmental footprint. Thorough understanding of alternative products, water flow & retention, traffic loads, and countless other factors can create a design that significantly lessens environmental impact.
GOING GREEN RESOURCES & NEWS
Go Green Initiative - Helping the World Go Green
U.S. Department of Transportation - Pavement Recycling Guidelines