How to Make Concrete More Sustainable

Production of cement is ranking 3rd in causes of man-made carbon dioxide emissions world-wide. Thus, in order to make concrete more sustainable one may work along one or more of the following routes; 1) Replacing cement in concrete with larger amounts of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) than usual, 2) Replacing cement in concrete with combinations of SCMs leading to synergic reactions enhancing strength, 3) Producing leaner concrete with less cement per cubic meter utilizing plasticizers and 4) Making concrete with local aggregate susceptible to alkali silica reaction (ASR) by using cement replacements, thus avoiding long transport of non-reactive aggregate.