Life cycle assessment of different types of cement concrete and their impacts on LEED certificated buildings

The ecosystems and biospheres of our planet are being destroyed due to the fossil fuel driven industrial development and excess production of goods. Fossil fuel combustion, land use change and overexploitation of resources have raised the global mean surface temperature. Concrete production is a highly resource and emissions intensive process due to its cement content. Considering the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with the calcination process and the combustion of fuels during clinker production, and the abiotic resource depletion of fossils and elements, a more eco-designed concrete should involve environment friendly clinker substitutes and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) in cement and in concrete as well as refuse derived fuels in fuel mix to create significant reduction in resource and emissions intensity. Moreover, the construction industry generates significant amount of waste that should be managed and integrated to value chain in the view of circular economy. In this study, an integrated approach of application of waste to energy targets, utilizing clinker substitutes, SCMs and construction and demolition waste (CDW) in concrete mix will be interpreted with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for different selected scenarios. The results represent the environmental savings through the integrated approach in terms of their relatively reduced contribution to global warming, acidification, eutrophication, photochemical ozone creation, human toxicity and abiotic resource depletion of fossils and elements. In addition, the eco-designed concrete to be defined as a result of LCA study will be evaluated in terms of LEED green building certification system.