Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

The special collection on Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies is available in the ASCE Library (https://ascelibrary.org/jmcee7/sustainable_construction_materials_technologies).

The construction materials industry is a major user of the world’s resources. While enormous progress has been made toward sustainability, the scope and opportunities for further improvements are significant. The focus of this conference series was to highlight case studies and research that show new and innovative ways of achieving sustainability of construction materials and technologies.

The Fourth International Conference on Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies (SCMT4) was conducted by Coventry University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on August 7–11, 2016, in Las Vegas. About 200 papers were presented and 250 delegates attended.

SCMT4 was planned after the three successful events in Coventry, UK, in 2007, which had more than 160 delegates; Ancona, Italy, in 2010, which had more than 270 delegates; and Kyoto, Japan, in 2013, which had 450 delegates. These conferences were attended by government officials, engineers from government and private industry, engineering faculty and students, materials suppliers, construction companies, and others. While the first three conferences highlighted current practice and research in sustainable construction materials, they also showed that more research and implementation activities remain to be done in this area. Therefore, the fourth international conference took place in August 2016 to continue this technology transfer effort.

The conference was sponsored by the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), American Concrete Institute (ACI), ASCE, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE), and Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) in addition to Coventry University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The awards committee for the conference selected papers to be considered for publication in the special collection of the Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. The six papers contained in this special issue were selected from those presented at the conference.

The papers cover a wide range of topics that contribute to the sustainability of structures. There is an increasing understanding that durability is a key contributor to sustainability due to the high environmental impact of maintenance and replacement. One paper presents the effect of low-carbon eco-friendly microwave heat curing to concrete structures and another paper the effect of surface electrical properties on chloride binding in slag-blended cement. Five papers relate to the constituent materials in concrete with three about cement replacements. There is also one paper on composite materials.

All selected papers were reviewed by three anonymous reviewers. We would like to take this opportunity to give our thanks to the referees for their critical reviews, advice, support, and encouragement.

The next conference, SCMT5, will be held at Kingston University, London, on July 14–17, 2019. Details can be found at http://www.scmt.org.uk.

Finally, we would like to give our special thanks to Professor Antonio Nanni for his support and for giving us the opportunity to produce this special collection.