Connect Sustainability with Design
Paving the Path to Sustainability
Founded in 1989, Techo-Bloc was born from a commitment to elevate the landscape design industry. Beginning with enhancements in shapes and colors, our journey has evolved to creating products that enhance the lives of the people who bring them into their environments and the ones who build these environments. Today, our mission extends to delivering excellence through sustainable materials and practices.
An Advocate for Sustainable Design and Build Practices
Since 2009, Techo-Bloc has been a political agitator and educational resource for municipalities and urban planners to change the way we build our neighborhoods for more sustainable design and build practices.
Techo-Bloc’s very own Lincoln J. Paiva, Director of Technical Service and in-house civil engineer, has been an advocate for permeable pavements for much of this time, and has worked closely with many municipalities on policy changes regarding the use of permeable pavements in urban planning. Through his work at Techo-Bloc he has contributed to several standards such as ASCE 68-18 Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavement, the actual current revision of ASCE 58-18 Structural Design of Interlocking Concrete Pavement for Municipal Streets and Roadways and more.
Permeable pavements serve as a vital tool in flood mitigation and environmental conservation efforts. By allowing rainwater to permeate through the surface, Techo-Bloc's permeable paving systems have swiftly become a gold standard in best management practices, championing both resilience and eco-consciousness.
Techo-Bloc Encourages Municipalities to Be More Sustainable
1,000,000 ft2 of Permeable Pavements Installed at Our Facilities
Our belief in permeable pavements as a sustainable design and build practice has been put to the test at our large-scale facilities.
In 2011, we set out on an ambitious project to prove that permeable pavements were a viable option for replacing large-scale concrete pavements in industrial applications. We invented a product called the INFLO (now HYDRA ), which could take heavy loads and high traffic circulation, then we produced and installed 370,000 sq ft of it and ran third-party research projects to measure the quality of the water that would filter through this large-scale permeable pavement.
It was also, our way of showing municipalities, designers, and other industry specifiers that permeable pavement was a reliable paving material that had considerable positive effects on water de-contamination.
Since then, we have paved the following facilities with permeable pavements: Chambly, Ottawa, Ayr, and Chicago.
We have conducted a study on our permeable pavement to determine how it improved to quality of the rainwater.
The findings:
Improved water quality is achieved through a reduction in the
following pollutants:
- Sediment reduced by 93%
- Phosphorus reduced by 77%
Actions to Reduce Embedded Carbon in Our Products
Action 1
Reducing Cement with Recycled Materials
Techo-Bloc is actively working on ways to reduce the cement in our
products through mix design changes, research and development
testing. Our effort have lead to us being able to reduce cement
usage up to 40% in our products with Supplementary Cementitious
Materials (SCMs).
One of these SCMs is slag, a byproduct and
waste material of the metal industry. This allows us to add
recycled content to our products while reducing our CO2 footprint.
Our efforts are committed to reducing cement across all of our products for the greatest environmental impact.
This evolution in mix design has allowed Techo-Bloc to minimize the environmental impact of its product while maximizing performance & durability.
Did you know?
Studies have shown that substituting a portion of Portland cement with slag can lead to reductions in CO2 emissions ranging from approximately 200 to 500 kilograms of CO2 per ton of cement replaced.
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Action 2
Packaging, the Bare Minimum
We have run a pilot project in our new production facility to reduce plastic in our packaging with a strapping system. The results for year one are 18 500 lbs reduction in plastic usage in our packaging.
We have ambitious plans to reduce our packaging to the absolute bare minimum while maintaining the quality and limiting breakage that could lead the product wasted.
By 2027 we will be investing $7M to convert our packaging process in all of our facilities and machinery to reduce plastic usage across all sites. This will equate to over 175,000 lbs of plastic reduced per year.
Action 3
Locally Sourced Materials & LEED Compliance
We locally source all ingredients that make up our products. This reduces the embedded carbon and contributes to our product’s LEED compliance. Stone, sand, aggregates and other ingredients are sourced within a tight kilometer radius to reduce carbon emissions due to transportation.
Action 4
Development of Lighter Colors to Reduce the Heat Island Effect
We developed light colors like Beige Cream, Greyed Nickel, and Pure White to hit higher Solar Reflectance Index values. These higher SRI values reduce the heat island effect and as a result, improve air quality and reduce the energy required to cool the surrounding buildings.
Action 5
Measuring Carbon for Benchmarks and Innovation
We are currently working to measure the embedded carbon of our products and operations in order to produce Environmental Product Declarations. This will inform and focus our efforts for current and future R&D initiatives. It will also help inform our clients working on the built environment.
Funding Research Projects for a Better Tomorrow
In its commitment to advancing sustainability in landscape materials, Techo-Bloc collaborated with and supported a research initiative with the University of Sherbrooke. This project aimed to develop and promote the use of recycled glass as a cement substitute in concrete.
As a result, a parking lot in Chambly was unveiled, featuring Techo-Bloc's permeable pavers made with recycled glass powder, aligning with the research objectives. Unfortunately, the utilization of glass powder was discontinued in 2018 due to challenges in sourcing consistent and uncontaminated supplies, which posed a risk to product quality. We continue to seek out research projects and initiatives to advance our industry’s progress on sustainable ingredients and processes.
Read ArticleOther Sustainable Initiatives
- Continuously funding research projects for a better tomorrow.
- We've invested $250,000 in a methane-powered truck for testing our transportation fleet at our Pen Argyl site, directly sourced from our waste landfill operations
- We are increasingly transitioning towards incorporating more electric vehicles into our company’s car fleet. So far, our vehicles have covered a total distance of 475,000 km.
- Recognized by Deloitte as one of Canada’s best-managed companies for the past five years.
- We are dedicated to educating contractors across North America about sustainable products and practices through our annual Hardscaper Showcase Tours.
Educating and Inspiring for a Better Future
Techo-Bloc has been on a mission to educate and empower 10,000 industry professionals for the last 20 years. The Hardscaper Showcase is the largest event in North America that teaches company owners how to strategically plan projects to reduce waste. The tour aims to help the community adopt responsible stormwater management techniques and teach the latest responsible installation techniques.
Additionally, it is part of Techo-Bloc's mission to raise awareness about permeable pavers in residential and commercial projects. We strongly believe that together, we can learn to build a better future.
