Webinar Introduction:

• Speaker: Eric Blond, P.E., M.Sc.A. 
• Date: Tuesday, 20th March 2025
• Time: 12.00PM AEST (Brisbane time)

Infrastructures lasting longer, using less gravel and emitting less carbon… It's all about geosynthetics and proper management of water!

This webinar will first introduce the benefits provided by geosynthetics to prevent typical water-related failures in civil infrastructures. While sand and gravel are typically used to control water and provide structural capacity, It will be shown that a sustainable approach to construction requires reducing drastically the consumption of aggregates, which are among the less renewable resources on earth and already require longer hauling distances to fulfill the needs in most urban areas.

Principles of carbon calculation will then be introduced and applied to typical road construction. It will be shown that hauling gravels over just 8 kilometers (5 miles) always exceeds carbon emissions associated with the production and installation of geosynthetics in a road structure.

Eric Bond, P.E., M.Sc.A.

Eric Blond is an independent consultant providing technical services to the geosynthetics and building materials industries. He is actively involved in several technical committees and associations. He is Chairman of the ASTM D35.10 Subcommittee on Geomembranes, Chairman of the Canadian Mirror Committee of ISO TC221, IGS Council Member, Chairman of the IGS Technical Committee on Hydraulic, and Secretary of the IGS North American Chapter, among others.

Eric Blond is the author of over 100 technical papers, conferences and courses. He is a lecturer at École Polytechnique de Montréal where he introduces geosynthetics to undergraduate students, and the design of geosynthetic lining systems to graduate students. He also offers customized training to engineering companies. He is registered as a professional engineer in Quebec and Alberta.