By Rebecca A. Bickham, Editor-in-Chief of Materials Performance (MP) magazine

Over the past three decades, the conversation around sustainability has narrowed into a carbon-specific narrative. However, this has drifted away from its original purpose of safeguarding resources, communities, and infrastructure for future generations.

Are you a corrosion engineer, materials and coatings specialist, asset owner/infrastructure manager, consultant/inspector, or sustainability professional working in the built environment? Are you a policy/specification writer and/or someone interested in sustainability?

If so, this forum invites you to take a step back and revisit the foundational principles of sustainable development. Speakers will explain what a life cycle assessment actually measures, as well as what and how terminologies such as modules, EPDs, and carbon tools fit into the broader decision-making landscape.
 
Attendees will then hear perspectives from leading voices across our industry. Together, they will reinforce a simple reality: durability is sustainability.

As they explain, extending asset life, reducing maintenance interventions, minimizing waste, and ensuring safe, resilient infrastructure can deliver environmental, economic, and social benefits in ways that carbon accounting alone cannot capture.
 
At the 2026 AMPP Annual Conference + Expo, which is being held inside Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center, the association is honored to host the following speakers:
 

• Raed El Sarraf (Structural Integrity Consultants): El Sarraf will visit the original intent of sustainable development and clarify how tools like life cycle assessment (LCA), EPDs, carbon modules, and accounting frameworks fit (or where they don’t fit) within infrastructure decision-making.

• Florent Bocher (AMPP): Bocher will offer updates on AMPP’s Sustainability Task Force and where the organization is heading.

• Pete Ault (KTA): Ault will share a consultant’s contribution to sustainable practice.

• David Whitmore (Vector Corrosion): Whitmore will address concrete durability and life extension.

• Kevin Irving (International Zinc Association): Irving will describe zinc’s role in extending service life.

• Tim Niemeier (Best-Tec): Neimeier will share updates on laser ablation, waste reduction, and improved worker safety.

• Tom Schwerdt (Texas DoT): Schwerdt wil relay an asset owner’s perspective on balancing durability, cost, and sustainability.

 
A key takeaway is that many professionals acknowledge that the industry has long incorporated practices into its work that are aligned with the mission of sustainability. This remains the case even if they were not consistently labeled as such, or if the role and contributions were not clearly articulated within the broader sustainability landscape.

This forum will take place on Tuesday, March 17, from 9:00 a.m. to noon in room 382 AB.

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