Concrete and Sustainability

"Concrete is the second most common commodity in the world, after water, and by far the most common building material. The industry has a great deal of responsibility for sustainable development. This book demonstrates the importance of sustainable thinking, examines the range of challenges facing the concrete engineer, and outlines how they can be addressed. It balances account resource availability, technical viability, economical feasibility, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. It presents a holistic view of the environmental challenges and conveys the complexity of the topic, while giving examples of good practice in various aspects from around the world"-- "In view of the development of world concrete and construction, we see an evolution of the focus in the direction of: Safety Durability Serviceability/Functionality Sustainability It is important in this context to learn at least two things: - All the focuses in the evolution process are closely linked to each other and function upon need instead of occurring and existing independently or replacing one by another. - The latest developed focus - Sustainability is not only evolved from the previous focuses but works as a function of them as well. We therefore believe that sustainability is not only an environmental performance, it is indeed a holistic thinking/approach that can be considered as the function of safety, durability, functionality and economical feasibility, environmental compatibility and social responsibility. The level/magnitude of each focus to sustainability varies depending on the specific requirement of the target and local boundary conditions"--