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Carbon Neutral Concrete Starts with Collaboration: Education, Innovation & Building a More Resilient Future with Kerry Sutton

Aug 5, 2026

✅ The Green Impact Report

Quick Take:

Concrete is responsible for building nearly every community on earth—and it's also one of the biggest opportunities to reduce embodied carbon. In this episode, Kerry Sutton explains why the future isn't about finding one miracle material.

It's about educating the entire industry, embracing innovation responsibly, and collaborating across every stakeholder to create resilient, lower-carbon infrastructure that lasts for generations.

🎓 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion

Kerry Sutton, PE, LEED AP is the Executive Director of NEU: An ACI Center of Excellence for Carbon Neutral Concrete. In this role, Ms. Sutton leads NEU’s mission to foster global collaboration, accelerating the adoption and use of reduced-carbon concrete technologies.

Ms. Sutton brings over 30 years of extensive experience in the concrete sector, with a strong background in pavement design, construction, and materials. Her appointment signals a reinforced commitment by NEU to advance sustainable practices through technical expertise and industry-wide collaboration. She also serves as the Director, Industry Relations for the American Concrete Institute (ACI).

Throughout her career, Ms. Sutton has been instrumental in advancing the acceptance and adoption of ACI codes and standards. She has been an active participant in the model code and standards development processes with leading organizations, including the International Code Council (ICC), ASTM, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and the AASHTO Committee on Materials and Pavements (COMP).

Ms. Sutton also currently serves as a Technical Consultant for the Slag Cement Association (SCA), advising on standards development. Her recent work includes participation in the Consensus Body for the Green Building Initiative (GBI), reflecting her dedication to sustainability.

Prior to her work with ACI, Ms. Sutton served as the Director of Engineering for the Michigan Concrete Association and held roles as a Technical Service Engineer and Corporate Environmental Engineer with Holcim, Inc. She is a registered professional engineer in the State of Michigan. She holds a BS in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University and an MS in Civil Engineering from Wayne State University. Her technical proficiency and leadership are expected to accelerate NEU’s impact on the industry’s path to carbon neutrality.

About NEU: An ACI Center of Excellence for Carbon Neutral Concrete
NEU: An ACI Center of Excellence for Carbon Neutral Concrete was established in 2022 by the American Concrete Institute. The Center, based at ACI World Headquarters in Farmington Hills,

Kerry.jpg

🌱 Breaking Ground on Better Building

🧠 Key Insight #1: Carbon-neutral concrete isn't one product — it's an ecosystem of smarter materials, better education, and informed decisions.

  • The Challenge: The construction industry often searches for a single "silver bullet" material, while many project teams still lack a clear understanding of embodied carbon or how emerging concrete technologies should be evaluated.
  • The Solution: Kerry explains that success comes from educating everyone involved — from architects and engineers to code officials, professors, students, contractors and owners — so innovative materials can be adopted confidently and responsibly.
  • ROI: Better education leads to better specifications, faster market adoption, lower embodied carbon, and more informed investment decisions while reducing project risk.

🧠 Key Insight #2: Collaboration — not competition — is accelerating concrete's path toward carbon neutrality.

  • The Challenge: For years, organizations pursued sustainability goals independently, often duplicating efforts or working toward competing priorities that slowed industry-wide progress.
  • The Solution: NEU creates a platform where manufacturers, researchers, engineers, policymakers and sustainability leaders openly share knowledge, performance data, and practical lessons that move the entire industry forward.
  • ROI: Faster innovation, stronger standards, greater trust in new technologies, and broader adoption of lower-carbon construction solutions across the built environment.

🧠 Key Insight #3: The future of sustainable concrete depends on balancing lower embodied carbon with long-term resilience.

  • The Challenge: Reducing carbon alone isn't enough if buildings, bridges, and infrastructure don't last. Sustainability without durability simply shifts environmental impacts into the future through repairs and replacement.
  • The Solution: Kerry emphasizes designing structures that simultaneously reduce embodied carbon while maximizing durability, resilience, and lifecycle performance. She also highlights exciting innovations like recycled concrete technologies that recover and reuse valuable cementitious materials.
  • ROI: Longer-lasting infrastructure reduces lifecycle costs, minimizes future emissions, conserves natural resources, and creates a truly sustainable built environment.

💬 Sustainable Soundbites

"Don't put yourself in a box. Be open and ready for different opportunities."

— Kerry Sutton

✍️ Your Green Building Action Plan

  1. This Week: Learn the difference between operational carbon and embodied carbon—and review the Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for one material specified on your current project.
  2. This Quarter: Bring architects, engineers, contractors, suppliers, and owners together to discuss lower-carbon material options before design decisions become locked in.
  3. This Year: Develop an organization-wide strategy that balances carbon reduction with resilience by incorporating lifecycle thinking into material selection and project planning.

🔗 Connect & Learn More

🌿 Access full episode resources: https://www.gbes.com/podcast

📄 Read the transcript here

👩🏻‍💻 Connect with Kerry Sutton:

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🧠 Today's Episode Sponsored By:

Building Plaques
Building Plaques creates custom LEED recognition plaques that tell the story of your project's sustainability achievement, made from architectural-grade anodized aluminum so they last as long as the building itself.

Their online plaque designer lets you build a fully customized plaque in under 10 minutes — just enter your LEED project number and you're off.

🔍 Learn more: https://buildingplaques.com

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