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Naming Right

Don Marsh

ACA Brand Picks Up Where Portland Cement Association Left Off.

By Don Marsh

ACA Chair Massimo Toso and Vice Chair Monica Manolas flank President and CEO Mike Ireland on the heels of the American Cement Association announcement.

Sunsetting a name that it had carried for more than a century frees the American Cement Association (ACA) from distorted perceptions in an era when members and staff might have mere seconds to communicate the organization’s mission and value proposition to the public and construction stakeholders.

“In recent years, U.S. cement manufacturers have expanded the types of materials they produce beyond portland cement, working to develop more lower-emission cements in an effort to decarbonize the industry and increase domestic cement manufacturing capacity,” said ACA President and CEO Mike Ireland, who unveiled the Portland Cement Association’s new name and brand last month at the IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Conference in Birmingham, Ala. “The name ‘Portland Cement Association’ no longer accurately reflects the mindset of today’s manufacturers, or the materials they currently produce. The rebranding makes it clear that we are a national association representing producers across the country.”

“As our industry evolves with new materials, technologies, and goals, it’s vital that our association’s identity reflects that momentum – especially to two important groups: government officials and the media,” added ACA Chair and Buzzi Unicem USA Board Chair Massimo Toso. “The new name reinforces that we’re one industry, speaking with one voice. The American Cement Association brand shows that we’re not only modernizing what we make, but how we represent who we are.”

New Slogan

Along with the new brand, ACA arrived at the IEEE-IAS/PCA Conference with a new slogan: Sustainable Cement for Resilient Concrete. “It summarizes the industry’s commitment to staying the course with our Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality,” noted ACA Vice Chair and Ash Grove Cement East President Monica Manolas. “We continue to focus on developing new technologies and products to achieve not only net zero by 2050 but also to increase the capacity of American cement manufacturing to meet demand.”

ACA Chair Massimo Toso and Vice Chair Monica Manolas flank President and CEO Mike Ireland on the heels of the American Cement Association announcement.

Deliverables since the Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality by 2050 was released nearly four years ago suggest ACA members are set to make good on their new slogan. The pursuit of Roadmap goals and higher industry capacity targets underly 2025 advocacy priorities that ACA leadership outlined for Conference attendees after the new brand and slogan unveiling:

  • Drive blended cement acceptance and adoption through the entire construction value chain.
  • Research the environmental and life cycle impacts of alternative fuels in cement and other regulated industries against the impacts of landfilling such materials.
  • Partner with trade-exposed, energy-intensive industries on CCS or carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) developments.

Portland Cement IP, 200 Years On ACA members and staff cite traction for the new brand since the IEEE-IAS/PCA gathering in Alabama. “The feedback I’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive,” Ireland affirmed. “Some industry stakeholders have told me ‘it’s about time!’ or ‘this makes sense.’ As soon as the board of directors voted unanimously to move forward with this name, ACA staff decided we should make the announcement at the IEEE-IAS/PCA Conference, because it is the international cement industry event of the year and we wanted to tell the whole world about it.”

Members had considered a new banner for their organization over the past year. The long-generic term portland tethered them to a narrow product offering with geographic connotation – not to mention intellectual property recognized two centuries ago on the other side of the Atlantic.

The IP element stemmed from the British mason Joseph Aspdin, who in 1824 obtained from King George IV a patent for Artificial Stone – the product of a thermal process converting limestone and clay to a hydraulic binder for stone, sand and gravel. Aspdin’s branding was a nod to the rock deposits on the Isle of Portland along the English Channel.

Portland cement prevailed in the United States as a product name and for corporate branding from the late 19th century forward. The Portland Cement Association forerunner organization, American Portland Cement Manufacturers, launched in 1902 with a primary purpose of gathering, maintaining and distributing cloth sacks for their powder.

Fourteen years later, group members switched their focus beyond cement distribution and chartered PCA with an eye to raising “the standard of concrete construction, to improve the quality of concrete work, to increase the quantity of cement used in established fields, and to develop new fields.”

Inaugural PCA President Ben Affleck of Atlas Universal Cement added perspective to the mission statement, contending, “The promotion and sale of our product means a constant yearly addition to the permanent wealth of the community.”

The charter PCA mission objectives and Affleck premise remain at ACA but share the stage with environmental and regulatory calls to action codified in the Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality.

PORTLAND CEMENT IDENTITIES: PREVALENCE TO OBSOLESCENCE

Of the 150-plus charter and subsequent Portland Cement Association member companies, more than half used Portland Cement in their official names. As the industry moved past the post-war building boom and multinational producers descended upon the U.S. market in the 1970s and 1980s, fewer operators bore Portland Cement in their official names. At present, CalPortland Co. is the sole major operator and American Cement Association member to bear an identity connected to portland cement. The other ACA member that had carried the branding tradition, Lehigh Portland Cement Co., adopted the Heidelberg Materials banner in 2023.

  • Aetna Portland Cement Co.
  • Allentown Portland Cement Co.
  • Alpha Portland Cement Co.
  • Alsen’s American Portland Cement Works.
  • Arizona Portland Cement Co.
  • Ash Grove Lime & Portland Cement Co.
  • Bath Portland Cement Co.
  • Beaver Portland Cement Co.
  • California Portland Cement Co.
  • Clinchfield Portland Cement Co.
  • Colorado Portland Cement Co.
  • Cowell Portland Cement Co.
  • Crescent Portland Cement Co.
  • Dewey Portland Cement Co.
  • Dexter Portland Cement Co.
  • Diamond Portland Cement Co.
  • Dixie Portland Cement Co.
  • Edison Portland Cement Co.
  • German-American Portland Cement Works.
  • Giant Portland Cement Co.
  • Gifford-Hill Portland Cement Co.
  • Gilmore Portland Cement Co.
  • Glens Falls Portland Cement Co.
  • Golden State Portland Cement Co.
  • Great Western Portland Cement Company of Kansas.
  • Gulf Coast Portland Cement Co.
  • Hawkeye Portland Cement Co.
  • Hermitage Portland Cement Co.
  • Huron Portland Cement Co.
  • Idaho Portland Cement Co.
  • Indiana Portland Cement Co.
  • Iola Portland Cement Co.
  • Ironton Portland Cement Co.
  • Kansas Portland Cement Co.
  • Keystone Portland Cement Co.
  • Kosmos Portland Cement Co.
  • Lawrence Portland Cement Co.
  • Lehigh Portland Cement Co.
  • Longhorn Portland Cement Co.
  • Manitowoc Portland Cement Co.
  • Medusa Portland Cement Co.
  • Michigan Portland Cement Co.
  • Missouri Portland Cement Co.
  • Monolith Portland Cement Co.
  • Newaygo Portland Cement Co.
  • New Egyptian Portland Cement Co.
  • Northwestern States Portland Cement Co.
  • Ogden Portland Cement Co.
  • Oklahoma Portland Cement Co.
  • Olympic Portland Cement Co.
  • Oregon Portland Cement Co.
  • Pacific Portland Cement Co.
  • Peerless Portland Cement Co.
  • Peninsular Portland Cement Co.
  • Petoskey Portland Cement Co.
  • Phoenix Portland Cement Co.
  • Portland Cement Company of Utah.
  • Pyramid Portland Cement Co.
  • Riverside Portland Cement Co.
  • Rochester Portland Cement Co.
  • San Antonio Portland Cement Co.
  • Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co.
  • Signal Mountain Portland Cement Co.
  • Southern States Portland Cement Co.
  • Southwestern Portland Cement Co.
  • Standard Portland Cement Co.
  • Sun Portland Cement Co.
  • Superior Portland Cement Co.
  • Texas Portland Cement Co.
  • Three Forks Portland Cement Co.
  • Tidewater Portland Cement Co.
  • Trinity Portland Cement Co.
  • Union Portland Cement Co.
  • United States Portland Cement Co.
  • Universal Portland Cement Co.
  • Virginia Portland Cement Co.
  • Vulcanite Portland Cement Co.
  • Wolverine Portland Cement Co.
  • Wyandotte Portland Cement Co.

Sources: PCA 1916 annual meeting registration list; “History of the Portland Cement Industry in the United States with An Outline of the Organization and Activities of the Portland Cement Association,” International Trade Press, 1923; and, 1966 PCA member roster.

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