Significance of Concrete Production in Terms of Carbondioxide Emissions: Social and Environmental Impacts

Abstract

Concrete is being recognized for its strong environmental benefits in support of creative and effective sustainable development. In response to growing environmental and economic forces, regulatories, engineers, developers and owners are seeking efficient, innovative concrete solutions that conserve non-renewable resources. When considering the lifetime environmental impact of a building material -extraction, production, construction, operation, demolition and recycling- concrete is the most advantageous choice to meet these goals. Global demands for regulating concrete production waste arise from the growth of these environmental and economic issues. Various efforts have been conducted by researchers to arrive at some alternatives that are able to significantly reduce high energy consumed and environmental impacts during fabrication process of cement. Therefore, the concept of "green concrete" as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional concrete has been emerging. This publication seeks to demonstrate how concrete contributes to future generations’ sustainable development, and will be of interest to architects, engineers, policy makers, contractors and clients, as well as others involved with the design, construction or operation of buildings and infrastructure. The main objective of this study is to identify and evaluate the key sources contributing to CO 2 emissions from concrete and compare traditional concretes with “green concretes”, concretes produced with blended cements and fly ash used as partial replacement of cement, in order to diminish the environmental impact of the concrete production.