With the current focus on sustainability, it is necessary to evaluate concrete’s environmental impact properly, especially when developing new ‘green’ concrete types. Therefore, we investigated the available literature on every step in the LCA of concrete. The adopted functional unit for which the environmental impact is calculated, influences the outcome significantly. When comparing different concrete compositions, this unit should incorporate differences in strength, durability and service life. Hence, a cradle-to-grave or modified cradle-to-gate approach is advised as system boundary. When using industrial by-products as cement replacing material in ‘green’ concrete, an economical allocation of impacts is recommended. Inventory data on energy use, CO2, PM10, SOx and NOx emissions were collected and assigned to the impact categories of the problem oriented CML 2002 and the damage oriented Eco-indicator 99 impact method. Compared to Portland cement, the impact of blast-furnace slag and fly ash is about an order of a magnitude lower.

Environmental impact and life cycle assessment (LCA) of traditional and ‘green’ concretes: Literature review and theoretical calculations

Comparative environmental assessment of natural and recycled aggregate concrete.

The changing role of life cycle phases, subsystems and materials in the LCA of low energy buildings

https://ira.lib.polyu.edu.hk/bitstream/10397/6725/1/li_Management_Prefabricated_Construction.pdf

Critical review of the research on the management of prefabricated construction

A recent study suggested that buildings globally consume up to 40% of energy and responsible for half of world greenhouse gas emission. Introducing life cycle assessment (LCA) to the building industry is important because it can measure every environmental impact involved in every process from cradle to grave systematically. Within the last decade, research on LCA has increased covering from construction process to manufacturing of building materials. The methods to assess buildings are diverse as buildings have different functions, materials, sizes and locations. The aim of this article is to review the LCA methods and to distinguish phases and materials that affect significantly to environment. The findings show the methods are based on ISO 14040 series with variance to suit different scopes, aims and limitations. The operational phase is identified to consume the highest energy and concrete responsible for the highest embodied energy. The findings also suggested that building material with lower embodied energy does not necessarily have lower life cycle energy. Therefore, implementation of LCA can determine and mitigate the environmental impacts in the development stage thus promoting sustainability in building industry.

A review of life cycle assessment method for building industry

Comparison of environmental impacts of building structures with in situ cast floors and with precast concrete floors

Pozzolanic activity of tiles, bricks and ceramic sanitary-ware in eco-friendly Portland blended cements

In this paper, tile ceramic waste (TCW), red clay bricks (RCB) and ceramic sanitaryware (CSW) were used as the partial replacement (14–30 wt%) of natural limestone aggregates to produce structural concrete. The natural and recycled aggregates were characterised, and the strength and density of the hardened concrete were investigated after 7 and 28 curing days at room temperature. The TCW concrete obtained the best compressive strength results (strength gain of up to 7% with 20 wt% waste after 28 curing days). The mechanical properties of the CSW recycled concrete were similar to those of traditional samples, and slightly diminished with curing time and aggregate substitution, with a maximum strength loss of 5.77% for the 30 wt% replacement. Although the RCB concrete presented the greatest strength loss (up to 18.4% after 7 curing days), it exhibited the best improvement of the strength with curing time, which resulted in a strength loss of only 11% in the 30 wt% RCB concretes cured for 28 days. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using TCW and CSW as recycled aggregates in structural concrete production without significantly affecting the developed recycled concrete’s compressive strength.

/pdf/effect-of-tiles-bricks-and-ceramic-sanitary-ware-recycled-4xdnckahmy.pdf

Effect of Tiles, Bricks and Ceramic Sanitary-Ware Recycled Aggregates on Structural Concrete Properties

Reutilisation of hazardous spent fluorescent lamps glass waste as supplementary cementitious material

Achieving sustainable urban environments is a challenging goal—especially in existing cities with high percentages of old and obsolete buildings. This work analyzes the contribution of roof refurbishment to sustainability, considering that most roofs are currently underused. Many potential benefits of refurbishment can be achieved, such as the improvement of the energy performance of the buildings and the use of a wasted space for increasing green areas or for social purposes. In order to estimate the degree of the improvement, a vulnerable area in Castellon (east Spain) was selected as a case study. A thorough analysis of the residential building stock was undertaken. Using georeferenced information from the Cadastral Office we classified them according to typology, year of construction and roof type. Some refurbishment solutions were proposed and their applicability to the actual buildings was analyzed under different criteria. The theoretical benefits obtained in the neighborhood such as energy and carbon emissions savings were evaluated, together with the increase of green areas. Moreover, other social uses were suggested for neglected urban spaces in the area. Finally, a more accurate analysis was performed combining different solutions in a specific building, according to its particular characteristics.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8111/pdf

Ángel Pitarch

Papers

Comparison of environmental impacts of building structures with in situ cast floors and with precast concrete floors

Pozzolanic activity of tiles, bricks and ceramic sanitary-ware in eco-friendly Portland blended cements

Effect of Tiles, Bricks and Ceramic Sanitary-Ware Recycled Aggregates on Structural Concrete Properties

Reutilisation of hazardous spent fluorescent lamps glass waste as supplementary cementitious material

Contribution of Roof Refurbishment to Urban Sustainability