Sustainability of Concrete Construction
Publication: Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 13, Issue 2
Abstract
Sustainability is important to the well-being of our planet, continued growth of a society, and human development. Concrete is one of the most widely used construction materials in the world. However, the production of portland cement, an essential constituent of concrete, leads to the release of significant amounts of , a greenhouse gas (GHG); production of one ton of portland cement produces about one ton of and other GHGs. The environmental issues associated with GHGs, in addition to natural resources issues, will play a leading role in the sustainable development of the cement and concrete industry during this century. For example, as the supply of good-quality limestone to produce cement decreases, producing adequate amounts of portland cement for construction will become more difficult. There is a possibility that when there is no more good-quality limestone in, say, a geographical region, and thus no portland cement, all the employment associated with the concrete industry, as well as new construction projects, will be terminated. Because of limited natural resources, concern over GHGs, or, both, cement production is being curtailed, or at least cannot be increased to keep up with the population increase, in some regions of the world. It is therefore necessary to look for sustainable solutions for future concrete construction. A sustainable concrete structure is constructed to ensure that the total environmental impact during its life cycle, including its use, will be minimal. Sustainable concrete should have a very low inherent energy requirement, be produced with little waste, be made from some of the most plentiful resources on earth, produce durable structures, have a very high thermal mass, and be made with recycled materials. Sustainable constructions have a small impact on the environment. They use “green” materials, which have low energy costs, high durability, low maintenance requirements, and contain a large proportion of recycled or recyclable materials. Green materials also use less energy and resources and can lead to high-performance cements and concrete. Concrete must keep evolving to satisfy the increasing demands of all its users. Designing for sustainability means accounting for the short-term and long-term environmental consequences in the design.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
ACI Board Advisory Committee on Sustainable Development. (2004). “White paper.” ACI, Detroit.
American Coal Ash Association (ACAA). (2006). CCPs survey, http://www.acaa-usa.org/PDF/2005_CCP_Production_and_Use_Figures_Released_by_ACAA.pdf (May 2007).
Bourg, J. (2004). “Water conservation.” http://www.wbdg.org/design/resource.php?cn=0&cx=0&rp=50 (May 2007).
Cement Association of Canada. (2004). “Concrete thinking for a sustainable future.” http://www.cement.ca/cement.nsf/e/6ABDCDE126A87A6C85256D2E005CC53B?OpenDocument (Nov. 15, 2005).
“Construction and demolition debris.” Solid Waste Digest, 13(7–8).
Coppola, L., Cerulli, T., and Salvioni, D. (2004). “Sustainable development and durability of self-compacting concretes.” 8th CANMET/ACI Int. Conf. on Fly Ash, Silica Fume, Slag and Natural Pozzolans in Concrete, 29–50, http://www.cbu.uwm.edu (June 30, 2004 ).
Malhotra, V. M. (2004). “Role of supplementary cementing materials and superplasticizers in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” Proc., ICFRC Int. Conf. on Fiber Composites, High-Performance Concrete, and Smart Materials, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India, 489–499.
McDonough, W. P. (1992). “The Hannover principles: Design for sustainability.” EXPO 2000, Hannover, Germany, William Mcdonough & Partners, Charlottesville, Va.
McKay, D. T. (2004). “Sustainability in the Corps of Engineers.” Technical session sponsored by ACI Board Advisory Committee Developments, Washington, D.C.
Mehta, P. K. (2002). “Greening of the concrete industry for sustainable development.” ACI Concrete International, 24(7), 23–28.
Naik, T. R., and Kraus, R. N. (1999). “The role of flowable slurry in sustainable developments in civil engineering.” Proc., ASCE Conf. on Materials and Construction—Exploring the Connection, ASCE, Reston, Va., 826–834.
Naik, T. R., Kraus, R. N., Ramme, B. W., and Siddique, R. (2003). “Long-term performance of high-volume fly ash concrete pavements.” ACI Mater. J., 100(2), 150–155.
National Building Museum. (2004). “Liquid stone: New architecture in concrete.” National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.
Portland Cement Association (PCA). (2006). North American cement industry annual year book—2006, PCA, Skokie, Ill.
“Sustainable developments: Planning for our future.” Time Magazine.
Time Magazine. (2002). p. A8.
UNFCCC COP9 Report. (2004). “Delivering the Kyoto baby.” Refocus, International Renewable Energy Magazine, 52–53.
United Nations. (2007). “ emissions.” http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/air_co2_emissions.htm (Oct. 25, 2007 ).
United States Geological Survey (USGS). (2006). “Cement statistics.” http://minerals.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/cement.xls (Oct. 29, 2007 ).
United States Geological Survey (USGS). (2007). “Cement.” http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cement/cemenmcs07.pdf (Oct. 29, 2007 ).
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Center for By-Product Utilization (UWM-CBU). (2007). http://www.cbu.uwm.edu/ (May 2007).
Worrell, E., and Galtisky, C. (2004). “Energy efficiency improvement and cost saving opportunities for cement making.” Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Publication LBNL-54036.
Wu, Z. (2000). “Development of high-performance blended cement.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, College of Engineering and Applied Science, Univ. of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 20, 2007
Accepted: May 17, 2007
Published online: May 1, 2008
Published in print: May 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.