As part of Votorantim Cimentos North America (VCNA), Prairie Materials operates under Our VC Way, a set of nine principles that shape how we run plants, build customer relationships, and take responsibility for what our operations put into the world. Sustainable Legacy is the principle that reflects our belief that doing this work means thinking beyond the next pour.
We design low-carbon concrete mixes, back them with clear data, and make it easy for contractors to utilize sustainable solutions with confidence.
Mix design plays a critical role in reducing embodied carbon. Prairie Materials uses supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), including fly ash and slag cement, to replace a portion of the Portland cement in many mix designs. Portland cement production accounts for the majority of concrete’s global warming potential (GWP), so displacing it with SCMs lowers the carbon footprint of the resulting mix while preserving strength and durability.
Going further, Prairie Materials is one of the early adopters of AI-supported concrete mix optimization in North America. Through a multi-year partnership with Concrete.ai, Prairie Materials uses Concrete Copilot, an AI-powered optimization tool, to model performance and carbon impact side by side before a single cubic yard is produced. The result is smarter mix designs, faster decisions, and no tradeoff between structural integrity and a lower GWP. Every recommendation the system makes is reviewed and approved by our technical team, because the goal is not to hand decisions to an algorithm. It is to give our experts better data for their work. We offer more than 50 Prairie+ mix designs, and the line has been applied on projects ranging from everyday orders to landmark builds across Northern and Central Illinois.
The clearest proof of our efforts is the Prologis Cicero warehouse in Cicero, Illinois, a 400,000 square foot facility and our first full-scale Prairie+ warehouse project. Of the 13,756 cubic yards placed across the project, 13,700 cubic yards used Prairie+ mix designs. That is 99.6 percent of the total pour. We estimate 721 tons of CO2 were eliminated compared to a conventional mix of equivalent performance. EPDs and methodology documentation are available on request. This kind of outcome is what Customer Focus and Act with Ownership look like in practice.
Votorantim Cimentos publishes an annual integrated report covering environmental and social performance across all operating companies, Prairie Materials included. Our report addresses climate metrics, energy use, biodiversity programs, water management, and community impact.
At Prairie Materials, Trust and Simplicity means the documentation is ready when you need it. EPDs for Prairie Materials and Prairie+ mixes are available on request from a Prairie representative, giving project teams the documentation they need without the runaround.
SCMs are the primary tool Prairie+ optimization uses to reduce embodied carbon while meeting performance specifications. Fly ash and slag cement, the two SCMs Prairie Materials works with most, are industrial byproducts that would otherwise require disposal. Using them in concrete mix design lowers GWP, reduces the demand for Portland cement, and gives those materials a productive second life.
Every Prairie+ mix is tracked against a measured baseline, so the reduction is not estimated in the abstract. It is calculated against the actual performance of a comparable conventional design.
Sustainability at Prairie Materials extends beyond mix design. Returned ready-mix is processed at our facilities, where recovered aggregate is returned to the materials supply where it meets specification, and reclaimed water is redirected to other production processes such as wash water, dust mitigation, and stockpile cooling. Construction crews working with us can also divert demolition concrete and reclaimed asphalt to recycling rather than landfills, where logistics permit.
This is a smaller piece of the picture than Prairie+ optimization, but it reflects the same instinct. Waste that can be redirected should be.
An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) documents the environmental performance of a specific concrete mix using a recognized life-cycle assessment methodology. For contractors specifying sustainable construction materials in Illinois, EPDs support project specifications, LEED documentation, and embodied-carbon reporting.
Prairie Materials EPDs are available on request. Contact a representative to get started.
