OpenConcrete: a tool for estimating the environmental impacts from concrete production

Abstract

As the increasing global consumption of concrete drives notable environmental burdens from its production, particularly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, interest in mitigation efforts is increasing. Yet current environmental impact quantification tools rely on user decision-making to select data for each concrete constituent, have inconsistent scopes and system boundaries, and often utilize third-party life cycle inventories. These factors limit customization or tracking of data and hinder the ability to draw robust comparisons among concrete mixtures to mitigate its environmental burdens. To address these issues, we introduce a cohesive, unified dataset of material, energy, and emission inventories to quantify the environmental impacts of concrete. In this work, we detail the synthesis of this open dataset and create an environmental impact assessment tool using this data. Models can be customized to be region specific, expanded to varying concrete mixtures, and support data visualization throughout each production stage. We perform a scenario analysis of impacts to produce a representative concrete mixture across the United States, with results ranging from 189 kg CO2-eq/m3 of concrete (California) to 266 kg CO2-eq/m3 of concrete (West Virginia). The largest driver of GHG, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, and volatile organic compound emissions as well as energy demand is cement production, but aggregate production is the largest driver of water consumption and particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) emissions.