Alternative Binders for Increased Sustainable Construction in Ghana—A Guide for Building Professionals

Abstract

Sustainable concepts and practices have taken a centre-stage in different fields of studies and professions. This is because human activities continue to threaten the carrying capacity of earth resources as well as life basic needs such as shelter. Ghana, a developing nation, has been characterized with a boom in construction activities. In almost every constructional work, Portland cement remains the main binding agent that is used to bind aggregates together in a monolithic unit. The overdependence of the Ghanaian construction industry on Portland cement has contributed to huge sums of foreign exchange used to import cement ingredients, high cost of buildings and annual artificial shortages of cement which leads to high cost of the product. In this work, alternative binding agent—pozzolana cement, is reported with regards to the theory behind its utilization, laboratory results and practical applications. Results obtained from both the laboratory and the field works have shown that the future binder for the Ghanaian construction industry is pozzolana cement. CSIR-Building and Road Research Institute recommends it for the construction industry for use in various forms of construction such as block making, concrete and mortar works.