HERNDON, VA. – Out of all the new infrastructure projects showcased at the 21st Winter Olympic Games, Vancouver’s Olympic and Paralympic Village that was 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, heating, use of local materials, and reuse of any surplus. These sustainable design specifications required that the concrete have an 80% 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 also 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-ft2 village containing over 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-ft2 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.