Green Concrete

Concrete is the second most-consumed product after water Life Cycle Assessment considers the materials over the course of their entire life, including extraction, manufacturing, construction, life and xfinally reuse/recycling. Factors like: o Embodied Energy Contrary to lay opinion, concrete has one of the lowest embodied energy footprints when compared to other building materials such as Steel, Aluminium, Timber, Glass. Energy savings could be made at plant and transport to make concrete more green. o Air pollution 95% of the Greenhouse Gas emissions in the manufacture of concrete arise during the manufacture of cement Reduction through use of lower amounts of cement and higher amounts of SCM (Supplementary Cementitious Material), or using cement products optimised by manufacturers to reduce this. Concrete absorbs CO2 in its life span, due to carbonation. o Water Pollution Concrete streets cause large amounts of rain water runoff into the sea, that could cause pollution from all the dirt and rubber laid on the floor by vehicles. A porous concrete can be used for large area coverage (car parks, roads, paving) so that this run-off is reduced o Potable Water Consumption A big issue with concrete is the consumption of potable water, green concrete could specified such that the use of non-potable water that meets the performance requirements can be used, allowing the re-use of water from ready mixed concrete operations (cleaning of trucks, precipitation at plant) o Solid waste o Recycled waste content Concrete can be recycled to a point, as aggregate in new concrete or in gabion walls (for example). Recycled /waste materials such as steel fibres, rubber fibres, shredded plastic, pozzolanic materials (waste by-products of other industries) may be added to the concrete to improve its characteristics (both mechanical and chemical) while reducing the stress on landfills). Many focus on just the CO2 aspect of concrete forces to reduce emissions that amount to roughly 1% of the buildings lifecycle energy use. Concrete is a locally sourced material raw materials are prevalent in most of the world. Reducing the need for importation of raw materials to create it (except cement in the case of Malta) Concrete is Durable highly resistant to many environments, and can be cured to resist other allows for re-use of buildings Energy Efficient can provide thermal mass to reduce temperature fluctuation in buildings, white concrete can also reflect heat and therefore reduce the urban heat island effect.