Review of Sustainable Concrete Solutions by Costas Georgopoulos and Andrew Minson

Professor Costas Geogopoulos, Chair in Structural Engineering Practice, Kingston University London, and Dr. Andrew Minson, Executive Director of the Concrete Centre in the United Kingdom (U.K.), explore current design principles and construction technologies to build sustainable buildings and civil infrastructure using the ubiquitous construction material in the world—CONCRETE. This book shows that the color of concrete can be turned to green if the material is handled responsively to the natural environment and human society. Although Georgopoulos and Minson concentrate the discussion on concrete construction practices in the U.K., the same philosophy can be employed in other countries and regions. This is a must-read book for designers, engineers, architects, researchers, planners, and students who advocate creating a sustainable built environment, because the authors have keenly provided a very thorough, concise, engaging, and intriguing discussion within each of the five chapters. This book covers all aspects of sustainability in concrete design, in a well-balanced fashion, adequately capturing the reader’s attention to examine the advantages realized by embracing the concepts of sustainability. In this informative book, the authors successfully inspire the reader to fully explore the positive impacts of what makes concrete such a sustainable building material, and why it is definitely a desirable green and indeed healthy choice for optimizing energy efficiency of a building structure. The reader is immediately able to connect with the authors’ intentions to shed light on the importance of incorporating sustainability issues early on during the design study integration phase, maintaining the positive impacts of thermal mass, biomass substitution, choice of concrete slab options, reflectivity, resource efficiency, and durability.

Environment, society, and economy are the three pillars of sustainability. The five chapters of the book discuss current challenges facing human society, and how construction practitioners address these challenges using concrete through the process of design, construction, operation, and end-of-life. The sustainability credentials of concrete are introduced in Chapter 1, and detailed in Chapter 2 responding to climate change, resource depletion, social progress, and economic growth. Without a doubt, the man-made stone is strong, durable, robust, and versatile to resist flooding and wind damages, and also satisfies aesthetics requirements. Concrete as a construction material functions well in buildings by withstanding chemical treatments, providing fire resistance, supplying higher thermal mass, and offering acoustic barriers. In addition, the cement and concrete industry plays a critical role in the economic growth of the world. Georgopoulos and Minson use specific numbers cited from research completed by Capital Economics (p. 41) to underline the contribution of the cement and concrete industry to the U.K. economy. Skeptics might argue that the manufacturing of cement and concrete devours natural resources, and it is an energy and emission intensive process. However, advanced technologies have already furnished the cement and concrete industry with alternative energy and improved efficiency to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The embodied carbon dioxide of concrete is comparable with, or much less than, timber and steel per unit volume or unit mass (p. 26). Concrete can be recycled to reduce the depletion of virgin aggregates. In addition, it is not difficult to restore the limestone and aggregate quarries, and interestingly, the book points out that quarrying actually helped find several significant archaeological sites in Britain.

After justifying the sustainability potential of concrete in the first two chapters, Georgopoulos and Minson move the discussion further in Chapters 3–5 utilizing concrete to build sustainable buildings and infrastructure. Conceptual design not only influences the construction program, but also has substantial impact on sustainability of the project. Chapter 3 details how to apply integrated design and employ concrete structural systems (i.e., substructures, vertical, and horizontal systems, cladding and roof structures) in design to achieve a sustainable building, and proposes innovative solutions using cementitious materials and concrete to design infrastructure (brownfield remediation, pavements, pipes, bridges, urban drainage systems, and foundations of wind turbines). Designers and engineers may need conceptual design tools to aid them in selecting sustainable structural systems. The free software Concept developed by U.K. Concrete Centre is introduced in Chapter 3 (p. 79), which facilitates the selection of optimal concrete slab or frame for a multistory building. The readers can follow the link provided in the reference to download the software and explore the benefits of this design planning Concept tool.

Chapter 4 helps readers achieve “a better understanding of material specification.” The terms to evaluate the environmental impacts of materials are introduced, e.g., life cycle of a material and life cycle assessment. Following the discussions in Chapter 2, the environmental impacts and benefits of the constituents of reinforced concrete (i.e., cement, aggregate, water, admixtures, reinforcement bars, and fibers) are discussed in Chapter 4. The book discusses the current British standard (BS8500) that specifies minimum cement contents, and maximum water cement ratios for mixtures with different exposure conditions. Georgopoulos and Minson show that minimum cement content in the mixtures and extended design life of concrete structures can be achieved by using chemical admixtures, which can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and embodied energy. Although Georgopoulos and Minson do not discuss the possibility to switch the prescriptive specifications to performance based specifications, published studies have revealed the further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumptions, and cost of concrete structures by employing performance based standards.

Chapter 5 concisely concludes with discussions on construction, operation, and end-of-life cycle of concrete structures. Reduction of construction waste and reuse of existing structures at the end of the building useful life are sustainable solutions. Georgopoulos and Minson intentionally do not discuss verbosely the operation of the building systems, possibly because users’ behaviors and attitudes play a large role in determining the impacts of the energy consumption and emissions from the use phase of a building. However, they do point out that energy and emissions from space heating and cooling accounts for 20–50% of a building life cycle consumption and emissions. The high thermal mass and durability of concrete can contribute to lower environmental impacts of a building.

The book is balanced and clearly explains advantages of incorporating concepts of sustainability in the design of concrete structures. This book is an excellent resource. We welcome you to join us in reading this illuminating book explaining how concrete can be a green friend of the environment, in all stages of its life span, from raw material production to demolition and recycle phases. We believe this book is worthy to purchase. Readers will clearly have a better understanding of the extreme importance of incorporating sustainable concrete solutions.