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What is Green Concrete?

Article · April 2009

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 Point of View

These columns of ICJ offer an opportunity to the engineering

fraternity to express their views on the current practices in
design, construction and management being followed in the
industry.
To share your opinion with our readers, you may send in your
inputs in about 1500 words via e-mail to editor@icjonline.com

What is Green Concrete?

Karthik H. Obla

Engineers and architects have choices of the material and which environmental impact indicator is most important.
products they use to design projects – when it comes to a And often times conducting a full LCA is so complex
building frame the choice is typically between concrete, that only a partial LCA is conducted with a focus on one
steel and wood; for paving applications the choice is or two phases of the life cycle. Recent focus on climate
generally between concrete and asphalt. Material choice change and the impact of greenhouse gas emissions
depends on several factors including first cost, life cycle on our environment has caused many to focus on CO2
cost and performance for a specific application. Due to emissions as the most critical environmental impact
growing interest in sustainable development engineers indicator. The problem with this approach is that it forces
and architects are motivated more than ever before to engineers, architects and product manufacturers to focus
choose materials that are more sustainable. However their efforts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions
this is not as straight forward as selecting an energy without regard to other sustainable practices.
star rated appliance or a vehicle providing high gas
mileage.1 On what “measurement” basis can engineers
and architects compare materials and choose one that
Concrete and CO2
is more sustainable or specify a material in such a way Every 1 ton of cement produced leads to about 0.9 tons
as to minimize environmental impact? of CO2 emissions and a typical cubic yard (0.7643 m3) of
concrete contains about 10% by weight of cement.4 There
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) seems to offer a solution. have been a number of articles written about reducing
LCA considers materials over the course of their entire the CO2 emissions from concrete primarily through the
life cycle including material extraction, manufacturing, use of lower amounts of cement and higher amounts of
construction, operations, and finally reuse/recycling. supplementary cementitious material (SCM) such as fly
LCA takes into account a full range of environmental ash and slag. Table 1 has been developed based on data
impact indicators—including embodied energy, air presented by Marceau et al.5
and water pollution (including greenhouse gases),
potable water consumption, solid waste and recycled The following observations can be made:
content. just to name a few. Building rating systems
such as LEED and Green Globes, are in various stages of Since a cubic yard of concrete weighs about 2 tons, CO2
incorporating LCA so that they can help engineers and emissions from 1 ton of concrete varies between 0.05 to
architects select materials based on their environmental 0.13 tons.
performance or specify materials in such a way as to
minimize environmental impact.2,3 Approximately 95% of all CO2 emissions from a cubic
yard of concrete is from cement manufacturing and so it
One potential drawback of LCA however is that the is no wonder that much attention is paid to using greater
person conducting the analysis often has discretion to set amounts of SCM.

26 The Indian Concrete Journal APRIL 2009

 Point of View
+
Table 1. Total CO2 emissions for 1 cubic yard (yd3) of concrete for different strength classes and mixture
proportions5
Ready Strength class, Mixture proportions*, Total concrete Breakdown of CO2 Emissions for 1 yd3,%
mix psi (kgf/cm2) lb/yd3 (kg/m3) CO2 emission, (0.76455 m3)
Id lb/yd3 (kg/m3)
Cement SCM Aggregate Plant Transport#
operations
1 5000 (351) 564/0/0 528 (313) 96.8% 0.0% 0.6% 0.6% 2.0%
(335/0/0)
2 4000 (281) 470/0/0 442 (262) 96.3% 0.0% 0.7% 0.7% 2.3%
(279/0/0)
3 3000 (210) 376/0/0 355 (211) 95.7% 0.0% 0.9% 0.8% 2.6%
(223/0/0)
4 3000 (210) 301/75/0 288 (171) 94.6% 0.0% 1.1% 1.0% 3.2%
(179/44/0)
5 3000 (210) 282/94/0 270 (160) 94.3% 0.0% 1.2% 1.1% 3.4%
(167/56/0)
6 3000 (210) 244/0/132 239 (142) 92.4% 1.2% 1.4% 1.2% 3.9%
(145/0/78)
7 3000 (210) 188/0/188 189 (112) 89.8% 2.1% 1.7% 1.6% 4.9%
(111/0/111)

*564/0/0 signifies that the mixture contains 564 lb/yd3 cement, 0 lb/yd3 fly ash, 0 lb/yd3 slag cement
#
Transport costs is for material shipped to ready mix plant
+
1 yd3 = 0.76455 m3

However, focusing entirely on CO2 emissions will result water and instead specify water according to
in the following unintended consequences: ASTM C1602 which allows non potable water and
water from ready mixed concrete operations as
1. Does not encourage the use of recycled or long as concrete performance data is maintained
crushed returned concrete aggregates since use of and met.6
virgin aggregates constitutes only 1% of all CO2
emissions from a typical cubic yard of concrete. 3. Does not encourage the use of sustainable practices
Even replacing all virgin aggregates with such as energy savings at a ready mixed concrete
recycled aggregates will reduce CO2 emissions plant since CO2 emissions from plant operations
by only 1%. But the use of recycled aggregates is constitutes only 1% of all CO2 emissions from a
important as it can reduce landfills and support cubic yard of concrete.
sustainable development. So, there is a need to
incentivise its use. Several local governments are 4. Does not encourage the use of sustainable
requiring less land filling and making land filling practices such as energy savings during transport
more expensive. Also prescriptive specification of the materials to the ready mixed concrete plant
restrictions on the use of recycled aggregates since CO2 emissions from transport constitutes
should be removed. Focus on performance will only about 3% of all CO2 emissions from a cubic
encourage producers to recycle. yard of concrete.

2. Does not encourage the use of water from As discussed earlier LCA considers materials over the
ready mixed concrete operations (water used course of their entire life cycle – material acquisition,
for cleaning ready mixed concrete trucks, and manufacturing, construction, operation, and reuse/
precipitation at a plant) since use of mixing water recycling. However, partial LCA may focus on CO2
constitutes a negligible amount (<< 1%) of all CO2 emissions on the material acquisition and manufacturing
emissions from a typical cubic yard of concrete. stage. It does not address the Construction, Operation,
Use of recycled water should be encouraged since and Reuse/Recycling portions of the LCA. Operationally
fresh water is becomingly increasingly scarce. This concrete is a very sustainable material – it has several
can be accomplished by removing specification advantages such as long term durability, high solar
restrictions that require the use of only potable reflectivity (lower heat island effect), and high thermal

APRIL 2009 The Indian Concrete Journal 27

 Point of View

mass (lowers energy consumption). It is almost entirely (for example a steel frame building or an asphalt
recyclable. It can absorb CO2 from the atmosphere roadway).
during its service life and after it is crushed for recycling.
It can be used in applications such as pervious concrete 4. Focusing solely on CO2 emissions from cement
that can reduce storm water runoff and recharge ground and concrete production does not encourage
water. the use of recycled or crushed returned concrete
aggregates; use of water from ready mixed
It is important to keep a holistic cradle to cradle concrete operations; use of sustainable practices
perspective when it comes to the use of a material. Based such as energy savings at a ready mixed concrete
on research Gajda et al.7 concluded that occupant energy- plant and use of sustainable transport practices.
use accounts for 99% of life cycle energy use of a single This is because only 5% of CO2 emissions from
family home. Less than 1% of the life cycle energy used a cubic yard of concrete is due to use of virgin
in that home was due to manufacturing cement and aggregates, water, plant operations and material
producing concrete. When taken as a whole the U.S. transport to the plant.
cement industry accounts for approximately 1.5% of U.S.
CO2 emissions. The global cement industry accounts for 5. Removal of prescriptive specification restrictions
approximately 5% of global CO2 emissions.8 So whatever and focusing on performance and the use of
way one looks at it focusing on just the production of incentives is an effective way to encourage
concrete accounts for a very small percent of overall CO2 sustainable concrete with low CO2 emissions.
emissions. This is not to say that progress should not
be made in reducing the CO2 emissions from concrete References
as produced. However one should keep in mind that 1. http://www.energystar.gov/
whatever CO2 emission reductions that are possible 2. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), U.S. Green
Building Council, Washington, DC, http://www.usgbc.org/
will still account for at best a 2% global CO2 reduction
3. Green Globes, The Green Building Initiative, Portland, Oregon, http://www.
(assuming a challenging 40% reduction in global CO2 thegbi.org/
emissions from cement manufacture from now on). 4. Concrete CO2 Fact Sheet, 2PCO2, 13 pp., June 2008, National Ready Mixed
Concrete Association, Silver Spring, MD, www.nrmca.org
5. Medgar L. Marceau, Michael A. Nisbet, and Martha G. VanGeem, Life
Summary Cycle Inventory of Portland Cement Concrete, SN3011, Portland Cement
Association, Skokie, IL, PCA, 2002, www.cement.org
1. CO2 emissions from 1 ton of concrete produced
6. ASTM C1602 / C1602M - 06 Standard Specification for Mixing Water Used in
vary between 0.05 to 0.13 tons. 95% of all CO2 the Production of Hydraulic Cement Concrete, American Society of Testing
emissions from a cubic yard of concrete is from Materials, Volume 4.02, www.astm.org.
cement manufacturing. It is important to reduce 7. Gajda, John, Van Geem, Martha G., and Marceau, Medgar L., Environmental
Life Cycle Inventory of Single Family Housing, SN2582a, Portland Cement
CO2 emissions through the greater use of SCM. Association, Skokie, IL, PCA, 2002, www.cement.org
8. Ernst Worrell, Lynn Price, C. Hendricks, L. Ozawa Meida, Carbon Dioxide
2. It is important not to focus solely on CO 2 Emissions from the Global Cement Industry, Annual Review of Energy and
emissions from cement and concrete production. Environment, Vol. 26, 2001 http://industrial-energy.lbl.gov/node/1930

Doing so limits the total global CO2 reduction

possible to at best 2%. Keeping a holistic cradle
to cradle perspective and using LCA can help Dr. Karthik Obla, P.E., received his Ph.D. in
reduce CO2 by a much greater amount since civil engineering from University of Michigan,
there is evidence to show that most of the energy Ann Arbor and is a licensed professional
engineer in the state of Michigan and Maryland.
is consumed during the operational phase of the Presently, he is the managing director, Research
structure (heating and cooling). Concrete is very and Materials Engineering at the National Ready
effective in reducing energy consumption due to Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA). He has
its high solar reflectivity, and high thermal mass over 18 years of experience in concrete materials technology
and research and has interests in mixture proportioning,
among other benefits. durability, quality control, specifications, and the use of
recycled materials. He is a Fellow of ACI and a winner of
3. Focusing solely on CO2 emissions from cement ACI’s Young Professional Achievement Award. Dr. Obla is
and concrete production increases the perception an active member of various ACI, ASTM, and TRB technical
committees and serves as Chair for ASTM C09.49 – Pervious
that concrete is not sustainable which is inaccurate
Concrete and ACI 232 – Fly ash. He served as Vice-President
since operationally concrete has substantial and President for the ACI San Antonio Chapter. Prior to
sustainability benefits. An incorrect perception joining NRMCA in 2003 he was technical manager at Boral
can lead to a less sustainable material choice Material Technologies for several years.

28 The Indian Concrete Journal APRIL 2009

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