The National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) recently announced the asphalt pavement industry’s plan to join other industries and sectors around the world in curbing climate change.
The association's research and implementation roadmap—The Road Forward: A Vision for Net Zero Carbon Emissions for the Asphalt Pavement Industry—calls on the U.S. asphalt community to advance technologies, products, and processes to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“This is one mission and one vision for the entire industry to point us where we need to go to proactively lower emissions and accelerate beyond the industry’s past efforts in environmental stewardship and sustainability,” NAPA Vice President for Engineering, Research, & Technology J. Richard Willis, Ph.D., said in a statement.
NAPA says over the past year, the 21-member Climate Stewardship Task Force studied the issue of climate change carefully to craft a direction for the industry. The Road Forward is a mission, vision, and roadmap outlining the direction the industry needs to take over the next two decades in the pursuit of net zero carbon emissions in the production of asphalt pavements. It includes four goals, 19 tactics, and eight research and implementation gaps.
This year, NAPA will publish a report documenting current emissions—a starting point for the industry to understand the depth of this challenge and to begin envisioning the path toward a net zero future. Then, over the next several years, NAPA’s Committee for Asphalt Research and Technology will spearhead new research and the Council for Engineering, Research, and Sustainability will develop best practices that will serve as a framework for member companies.
NAPA has dedicated a section of its website to The Road Forward. It is accessible via AsphaltPavement.org/Forward or by clicking on the Climate tab from any page of NAPA’s website.
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SOURCE: National Asphalt Pavement Association