Ash Grove Dispatch - December 2023

DISPATCH THE MAGAZINE FOR ASH GROVE NORTH CUSTOMERS Number 11 | December 2023

RICHARD G.

DANIEL

JOHN

IAROSLAV

SY

GORD

NIVES

EKALAVYAN

RICHARD S.

EMMA

JASMINE

ROBERT

ASH GROVE

Message from Emma As we approach the end of 2023, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support and partnership throughout the year. It’s been a year marked by resilience and adaptability.

This year has seen its fair share of challenges, with the world and markets continually facing new obstacles. We’ve navigated market challenges including rapid interest rate hikes, global banking turmoil and ongoing geopolitical unrest.

In the midst of these challenges, we’ve witnessed the impact of transformative technological advancements, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI). The advent of AI, such as ChatGPT, has sparked discussions about authenticity and veracity across various sectors. It underscores the rapidly evolving landscape we operate in and the opportunities it brings to businesses like ours.

Against the backdrop of these market dynamics, we have recently achieved a significant milestone by listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) (see page 3). This new development signifies a remarkable step in our growth and opens up exciting avenues for our future.

In addition to this achievement, we were excited to see the Cement Association of Canada launch the “Concrete Zero Action Plan,” a thrilling step toward sustainability and aligns with our commitment to environmental responsibility.

Additionally, we’re furthering our sustainability commitment with an exciting partnership with Carbon Upcycling, a significant move towards decarbonizing our business.

As we conclude this year, we want to express our profound appreciation for your unwavering support. Your trust has been the cornerstone of our success, and we look forward to working together and contributing to your achievements in the upcoming year.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyous, peaceful, and safe holiday season. Here’s to a new year filled with promise and opportunities.

Emma Schindler, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Ash Grove Canada and Great Lakes

Upcoming Industry Events

WORLD OF CONCRETE

LANDSCAPE ONTARIO CONGRESS

CANADIAN CONCRETE EXPO

Location: Toronto Congress Centre 650 Dixon Road Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada

Location: The International Centre 6900 Airport Road Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

January 9 - 11, 2024

2 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | December 2023

January 23 - 25, 2024

Location: Las Vegas Convention Center 3150 Paradise Road Las Vegas, United States

February 14 -15, 2024

A Momentous Day for CRH Primary Listing on New York Stock Exchange Earlier this year, CRH announced its intention to pursue a primary US stock market listing. We are delighted to say that we have now delivered on that commitment, officially listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday, September 25, 2023.

We were incredibly proud to represent every single one of our stakeholders across the CRH Group as we rang the bell and trading in our CRH stock began on the NYSE.

The new listing will allow us to fully participate in the significant growth opportunities that lie ahead in the US. As we enter a new era of growth, operating as one global Group remains critical for us to unlock the full potential of our business and to fulfill our purpose. What will truly enable us to do that, and to take CRH to the next level of growth and performance, will be how we live our values and evolve our culture.

If you would like to hear more about the new listing, watch the interview of our CRH CEO, Albert Manifold, on CNBC by scanning the QR code below.

This marks a momentous milestone for CRH. It’s a great time to be part of CRH as we stand together to reinvent the way our world is built.

December 2023 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | 3

Our Scale of Solution As the essential partner for road and critical utility infrastructure, commercial building projects and outdoor living solutions, CRH’s unique offering of building materials, products and services helps builders streamline their work at every phase to deliver faster, more economical projects.

By offering our customers complete solutions, we help them to build safer, quicker and cleaner, meeting their changing needs, while addressing the evolving trends in global construction markets.

1

#

ROAD SOLUTIONS

We are the NO. 1 ASPHALT PAVER, the No. 3 ready mixed concrete provider and a leading supplier of products for road construction, repair and maintenance.

CRH is the largest paver and the leader in Road Solutions for sustainable road construction in North America. We deliver a range of solutions for our customers to better connect our communities through unrivaled capabilities in asphalt and ready mixed concrete, including production, installation, maintenance and circularity.

PAVING THE WAY TO SUSTAINABLE ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE From major public highway infrastructure to residential roads, airports and parking lots, CRH is the leader in sustainable road solutions across North America.

As the No. 1 asphalt paver and No. 3 ready mixed concrete producer in the United States, we are positioned to meet the needs of our customers, who include state and municipal governments, contractors, developers and other providers of construction services.

CRH Americas Materials is comprised of hundreds of companies with long ties to the community and years of local expertise. Each of these companies is a responsible operator that optimizes the use of recycled materials, reduce waste, emissions and energy consumption.

1

#

OUTDOOR LIVING SOLUTIONS We are the NO. 1 SUPPLIER of concrete masonry and hardscaping products, vinyl and aluminum fencing and railing, and specialty landscaping products.

CRH is the leading provider of a wide range of innovative and sustainable Outdoor Living Solutions. We integrate specialized materials, products and design features to help construction pros, municipalities and homeowners transform their outdoor spaces.

BUILT TO CREATE STUNNING SPACES We help our customers in residential and commercial markets create unique outdoor settings by providing best-inclass solutions for repairs, remodels and new construction projects.

Our business is closely connected to our customers through a broad geographic network and comprehensive suite of products and services spanning hardscapes, fencing, railing, masonry, packaged products, lawn and garden, pool finishes, and composite decking.

We are dedicated to anticipating and exceeding customers’ needs by continually enhancing our offerings through strategic growth, portfolio expansion and multifaceted collaboration.

4 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | December 2023

ns in North America 1

#

BUILDING & INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS We are the NO. 1 PROVIDER of multi-material infrastructure solutions, construction accessories and critical utility products.

CRH is the essential partner for Building and infrastructure: connecting, protecting, and transporting critical water, energy, and telecommunications infrastructure for delivering commercial building projects in North America. We integrate design, materials, products, and engineering to enable the transition to a more sustainable and resilient built environment.

EXPERT ENGINEERING As CRH’s global building materials division, Leviat is a world leader in connecting. Insulating, lifting, and anchoring technology for the construction industry.

Our trusted product brands, including Ancon, Halfen, Thermomass, and Meadow Burke, are all known for high performance, quality, and reliability.

These engineered products and innovative construction solutions are used in a variety of sectors, including residential, retail, warehousing, and infrastructure.

Leviat engineers provide technical design assistance at every stage of a project, from initial planning to installation and beyond. Our technical support services range from simple product selection through to the development of a fully customized project-specific design solution.

Every promise we make locally includes the commitment and dedication of our entire global team of 3,000 people at 60 locations across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

#

2 3 # AND

ESSENTIAL MATERIALS

WE ARE THE NO. 2 AGGREGATES PRODUCER. WE ARE THE NO. 3 CEMENT PRODUCER. CRH is the largest vertically integrated manufacturer and supplier of Essential Materials, including cement, ready-mixed concrete, and the full range of construction-grad aggregates. These materials are used extensively in a wide range of construction applications in projects across North America.

FROM START TO FINISH, OUR MATERIALS ARE ESSENTIAL Aggregates Aggregates underpin every corner of the building and construction sector.

CRH Americas Materials delivers the full range of products from sand and gravel required for ready-mixed concrete and asphalt mixes to crushed stone used to stabilize roadways and underground infrastructure. No one can deliver aggregates at scale like CRH. Cement CRH Americas Cement is a leader and a pioneer in the cement industry. We bring more than 140 years of experience to the manufacture of this essential material and to the technical services we provide our customers to solve common, and uncommon, problems.

From solutions in soil stabilization to previous concrete system design, no one has expertise in cement like CRH. We are an active promoter of circularity with ambitious 2030 carbon reduction targets and are an active partner in leading the acceleration and implementation of carbon reduction technologies.

December 2023 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | 5

ASK THE TECH TEAM Help Tech Team!

My aggregate and the soils surrounding my concrete don’t play well with others.

What can I do to make everyone get along?

Sincerely, Cole Aberate

HS/MS (Sulfate) and ASR (Alkali-silica) Resistant Concrete Hi Cole, what you are referencing are reactions between cement and aggregate as well as surrounding soils. Over time these reactions will cause the concrete to expand and deteriorate, ultimately causing the replacement of the concrete. Different types of cement such as type II and V were created to help reduce these reactions.

Typical type II and V cements are now being phased out and replaced with blended cements that include a type I cement with an SCM such as SLAG, Fly Ash or Silica. This allows more versatility as more concrete producers can now meet HS, MS and ASR job specific requirements. On the right, is a brief description on how to achieve such requirements.

6 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | December August 20232023

Medium / High Sulphate Resistance (Type MS/HS)

t he

am

Sulfate-resisting cement is now a blended cement (i.e. GUL and SLAG) designed to improve the performance of concrete where the risk of sulfate attack may be present. Concrete designed to provide improved sulfate resistance should greatly reduced permeability and increase resistance to the penetration of chloride ions. As Grove Cement conducts a test as per CSA A3004-C8 to evaluate the expansion of concrete exposed to sulfate, the HS requirements is max 0.5% expansion at 6 months and 1.0% for MS. We typically test at various SLAG substitutions to help understand how much is needed to meet both MS and HS requirements. See graph below for an example of what we would deliver. As you can see, we would require a minimum of 25% SLAG substitution

ch e t

the highly alkaline cement paste and the reactive amorphous silica found in many common aggregates. This reaction will form a gel that swells as it adsorbs water from the surrounding cement paste or the environment.

These gels can induce enough expansive pressure to damage concrete beyond repair requiring replacement.

te

Sulfate-attack of concrete is a complex process, which includes physical attack via road salt and chemical sulfate attack by sulfates from soil, groundwater or seawater. Sulfate attack causes the formation of gypsum and ettringite.

This leads to an increase in solid volume that can lead to expansion, cracking, strength loss and disintegration of the concrete.

to meet HS requirement, while 15% substitution is adequate for MS requirements.

Alkali–silica reaction (ASR) The alkali–silica reaction (ASR), also commonly known as concrete cancer, is a deleterious swelling reaction that occurs over time in concrete between

ASH GROVE CEMENT Length Change of Hydraulic-Cement Mortars Exposed to a Sulphate Solution – Davroc Sample Number C176

Alkali-silica reactions can be controlled using supplementary cementitious material such as SLAG, silica fume and fly ash. CSA A23.2-28A, a standard practice for laboratory testing to demonstrate the effectiveness of supplementary cementing materials and lithium-based admixtures to prevent alkalisilica reaction in concrete can be performed to determine the minimum amount of SCM required to reduce expansion. CSAA23.2-25A states that an expansion of less than 0.10% at 14 days indicates a significantly reduced expansion and thus passes the ASR requirement. This test is a bit more unique to sulfate attack as it requires the individuals aggregate to do the test. Unless the concrete companies share the same aggregate and cement source then individual testing will be required.

ASH GROVE CEMENT Alkali-Aggregate Reactivity Expansion Test Results CSA A23.2-25/ CAS A3.2-28 Test Method

Tested to CAS A3004-C8 and ASTM C 1012-18b

Length Change (%)

Length Change (%)

0.20 0.15 0.10 0.05 0

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

0.40 0.35 0.30 0.25 0.20 0.15 0.10 0.05 0

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 11 12 13 14

Test Age (Days)

Test Age (Weeks)

Concrete Sand-CBM Thamesford Pit with 75% U/25% SLAG 85% GUL/15% SLAG

75% GUL/25% SLAG

Six Month Limit 0.05%

Twelve Month Limit 0.10%

65% GUL/35% SLAG

19mm Concrete Stone-CBM Thamesford Pit with 75% GU/25% SLAG CSA A23.2-28A Limit

December 2023 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | 7

Customer Site Best Practices Ash Grove’s commitment to a safe and healthy work environment is what we strive for. We want to protect employees and everyone who visits one of our sites to ensure they return home safely to their families and friends. Ash Grove has initiated numerous programs to bring best practices into the lives of our employees, contractors, and visitors to our facilities. One of these programs we launched earlier in the year included a Safety Audit of the Cement Tanker at either one of our facilities, or at one of your plants (Customer sites).

Safety Audits allow you to conduct a much easier examination of all potential hazards in the workplace, engage employees, and reward achievements. This exercise will help us identify where we can improve and highlight and acknowledge those drivers who are going above and beyond to ensure their safety and yours. Throughout the last few months, our Technical Services/ Logistics Team has been out conducting safety audits on cement tankers and the surrounding area of the workplace. One best practice we observed throughout

8 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | December 2023

these audits was a color-coded lock system for silo pipes that Dufferin Concrete and Ontario Ready-Mix are beginning to implement in all their ready-mix plants. Blue is for GUL, Red is for HSF, and Green is for SLAG. The keys for the lock are located in the batcher’s office. They have stepped up to prevent silo contamination and potentially prevent the wrong material from being offloaded into the silo and most importantly ensuring cement tanker drivers operate safely and efficiently.

If your plant requires a new silo tag for your plant, please reach out to your Technical Services Team, who will arrange this for you.

We want to keep everyone healthy and up to date with current best practices and hope this can be passed along to your business and workplaces.

What are you going to do differently to be safe? #Inthistogether

Meet our CSR Team Iaroslav Jemtchoujnikov

Sheri Goodwin

Manager, Logistics and Customer Experience

Customer Service Supervisor

Angela Guingcangco

Ruhani Madaan

Distribution Co-ordinator

Distribution Co-ordinator

Nancy Amaral

Tyler Greenwood

Customer Service Representative

Customer Service Representative

Carter Bailey

Tyler Armand

Customer Service Representative

Customer Service Representative

Emily Chia

Kalie Hicks

Customer Service Representative

Customer Service Representative

Our CSR team is the front line of our business, helping customers, organizing deliveries and problem solving any issues that may arise. We strive to provide the best communication and highest service levels to meet your every day needs. We work with our customers and carriers to get our products from one place to another safely and efficiently. Our team comes with a wide variety of knowledge from the industry and years of experience. We are here to support your business needs and collaborate with your teams for success.

Our team is available during regular business hours via phone, email and now text message, simply by texting 1-800-268-5373 you can reach one of CSR team members.

Thank you for your business and we look forward to future endeavours!

Safety Week

Driver Appreciation Day

At Ash Grove Cement Plant, the safety of our people is always our top priority. We’ve been implementing a monthly ‘See Stop Do Day’ as part of our commitment to creating a leading safety culture.

Drivers are one of the most integral parts of our success here at Ash Grove by ensuring we are able to get cement to our customers when they need it and their contribution to our business is valuable.

During the week of October 16, 2023 to October 20, 2023, we visited different plants and terminals across the region to recognize and acknowledge the hard work all the employees do to uphold our core values by demonstrating their obligations to focus solely on putting safety first and re-committing to our safety pledge “When I SEE Something, I Will STOP and DO Something”.

To show our appreciation, on October 19, 2023, we had our Annual Driver Appreciation Day. On this day, our order desks were rearranged into an Assembly Plant where the Customer Service team organized and provided packaged lunch for over 150 drivers.

We specifically set this time to thank our truck drivers and had a chance to chat with them.

We hope that you join us in thanking them for their dedication, commitment and the many challenges they overcome to ensure that our products are delivered safely, securely and on time.

December 2023 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | 9

Together for Respect Ash Grove Cement celebrated its Inclusion and Diversity Week in September. In a world where the importance of inclusion and diversity cannot be understated, Ash Grove Cement has emerged as a prime example of how a company can truly make a difference. This year, we have chosen ‘Respect’ as its central theme, as a reflection of our unwavering commitment to fostering a healthy relationship in a workplace where every individual is valued, appreciated, and given the opportunity to thrive.

Between September 25 and September 29, Ash Grove Cement celebrated its Inclusion and Diversity Week. A lot of local activities were put together to engage the employees. A lunch was held which provided employees with the opportunity to celebrate and discuss culture and heritage. Employees were encouraged to wear traditional clothing or a favorite

sports jersey for the day. We also had set up a large world map in the common area so employees could pin the area they like to call “Home”.

Finally, we hosted a wonderful colouring contest for the kids! Prizes were handed to each participant and a few grand prizes for the winners.

Ash Grove’s dedication to ‘Respect’ within the umbrella of Inclusion and Diversity is not only confined to the workplace but also within the communities we serve. We will continue to work Together for Respect and continue to fortify the vast network of perspectives and experiences our employees bring to work each day as we reinvent the way this business operates.

Open House Follow Up On September 30, 2023, Ash Grove, a division of CRH, welcomed the community to its much-anticipated Mississauga Cement Plant Open House.

A tradition disrupted by the pandemic; this event was the first since 2018. Despite the hiatus, the turnout was impressive, with over 650 guests in attendance, including plant retirees, CRH colleagues and esteemed community members, such as MPP’s Rudy Cuzzetto, a steadfast supporter of Ash Grove’s

Open House events, alongside MPP’s Deepak Anand and Sheref Sabawy.

The event unfolded as a public spectacle, featuring diverse themes, such as Sustainability, Biodiversity, Safety and Mental Health Awareness. These themes were thoughtfully presented by various department booths within the plant, highlighting Ash Grove’s commitment to being a leader in sustainability and a responsible community member.

10 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | December 2023

The heart of the Open House lay in the engagement and education offered by the many department booths.

Ash Grove employees, brimming with enthusiasm, manned these exhibits, providing valuable insights into plant operations, safety measures, environmental footprint management and production strategies. The interactive displays and activities made learning both fun and informative. The real highlight was the interaction with a live Peregrine Falcon, a nod to the plant’s commitment to biodiversity. A special kids’ corner allowed the younger visitors to play in a bouncy castle and ride mini-excavators, fostering a sense of wonder and excitement.

Attendees also had the opportunity to take part in the guided bus tours, which provided detailed insights into the cement-making process, from raw material unloading at the dock to the finished product.

The success of the Open House was not only measured by the enthusiastic participation, but also by the community’s generosity. The Ash Grove Mississauga Team and CRH Canada colleagues, instrumental in planning and executing the event, facilitated the donation of over 150 pounds of food and diapers to the local food bank, Compass Food Bank.

CRH’s Memories of Christmas Past

2016

2017

2019

2021

2018

2020

2022

2023

December 2023 | ASH GROVE DISPATCH | 11

Photo Gallery

1

2

1 Our Sales team at the

Mississauga Open House

2 Concrete Manitoba Golf Tournament

3 The Mississauga team

at the plant Open House

3

4

4 Enjoying beautiful Muskoka

5 Golf at stunning Muskoka Bay

6 Congratulations to

our Tech Services Intern Liam Flynn on your FEAS award from TMU

7 Mississauga Plant

5

6

7

tour with US APG production group

8 Catching up at the CCPPA AGM in Victoria

9 A great dinner after a great day of golf

10 ACI Ontario Golf

Tournament at Cardinal

8

9

10

Ash Grove Mississauga Cement Plant 2391 Lakeshore Rd West Mississauga, Ontario L5J 1K1 Email: AMAT-Communications-CA@crh.com

RECYCLED Paper made from recycled material