The "greening" of the concrete industry : factors contributing to sustainable concrete

The dawn of the new millennium has brought to light the environmental concerns of global warming, pollution, limited landfill space, and depleting natural resources. These concerns, compounded by the growing global population, have peaked interests in sustainability. In order to accommodate the world's people, industrialization and urbanization is at an all-time high, making the construction industry one of the biggest consumers of energy and resources and one of the biggest producers of waste. With its versatility and low cost of materials, construction, and maintenance, concrete has emerged as the material of choice for new construction in the 20th and 21st centuries. With over 10 billion tons of concrete being produced annually, the concrete industry is the largest consumer of natural resources and one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. In order to reduce the harmful impacts of such a valuable construction material, it is imperative that the concrete industry take strides to become a "green" material.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Kuntz, Lauren Midori

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jerome J. Connor.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34594

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34594