Graniterock’s Green Journey

SYNOPSIS

Graniterock isn’t your typical environmentalist.

Our 122-year-old mining and construction company is energy intensive, to say the least.

We operate the largest aggregate quarry west of the Mississippi, producing rock and sand for building California’s infrastructure with many crushers, conveyor belts, filters and heavy equipment to move, crush and stockpile the rock.

We operate a dozen asphalt and concrete production facilities located throughout the San Francisco Bay Area that also rely on heavy equipment and massive energy consumption.

In addition, Graniterock’s Construction Division is a power user of large heavy machinery and diesel-fueled trucks for building roads and bridges throughout the region.

However, in recent years we have started to evaluate more closely how we use energy and invest in alternative sources.

This shift in thinking has started Graniterock down a “green journey,” a road that will help make Graniterock a sustainable business for the next generation.

Graniterock’s green journey, which is documented in this film, tells the story of how one of California’s oldest and largest construction companies is starting to use solar energy to power more than half of its quarry operations, invest in energy storage with a Tesla battery, convert the company’s headquarters to a nearly net-zero building, use industrial byproducts – slag and fly ash – in the production of concrete, produce asphalt with old tires as a main ingredient and recycle the asphalt roads we drive on to make new asphalt.

There is a major shift happening in making the construction industry a sustainable, environmentally friendly industry, and Graniterock is leading the way.

This is just the beginning of our green story.