About the author  ⁄ Luke Pinkerton, P.E.

Luke Pinkerton is the President, Chief Technology Officer, and Founder of Helix Steel. Luke is Chair of the direct tension task group of ASTM Committee C09, Secretary of ACI 380, and a consulting member of ACI 332 and ACI 551 (luke.pinkerton@helixsteel.com).

Design and construction professionals face significant challenges driven by increasing customer demands, rapidly changing material costs, strained supply chains, and the loss of workers going into trades. However, a more urgent issue is that climate change is a real and growing concern. Given that concrete is the most widely used manufactured material in the world, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) has challenged the design and construction industries to address the issue by developing a roadmap to carbon neutrality by 2050. Optimization, avoiding overdesign, designing for performance, and leveraging technology are critical parts of the path (Figure 1).

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