Editorial to the Special Theme Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability represents a commonly agreed global development goal. It aims at ensuring the quality of life on Earth for current and future generations. Sustainability should thus become the fundamental overarching concept for the efficient/high-quality design and operation of any product or service throughout its lifecycle—focusing on all three pillars of sustainability—social, environmental, and economic. Among the different socioeconomic sectors, dealing with the impacts that the construction sector has is fundamental, as it strongly contributes to many of the pressing issues that need to be addressed. Not only do we need to improve the economic, environmental, and social performance of our built environment, but we also need to be better prepared for new conditions that are appearing as a cause of global challenges (e.g., climate change). The importance of this approach is all the more clear in light of an increasing number of man-made and natural disasters occurring globally. Thus, current developments and changes in the environment and socioeconomic situation require improvements in the technology of different processes that are involved in construction projects. In this context, concrete is a particularly interesting material, because it has a great potential for new technical solutions meeting new requirements, leading to the necessary reduction of environmental impacts and at the same time improvement of social and economic conditions, including safety and reliability during emergency situations. However, considering the huge volume of global concrete production and the negative impacts closely linked to its production, the overall environmental negative impact associated with the construction of concrete structures on a global scale is considerable. In view of the above global situation, it is of utmost importance to focus on the introduction of new production and construction technologies, advanced design techniques and efficient operation, maintenance, and recycling techniques of concrete structures. Concrete mixes, concrete products, and concrete structures should be designed to meet the requirements of sustainability—namely, to minimize their negative impacts and increase the positive impact on society, the environment, and the economy. This could be achieved by increasing the quality and durability of concrete structures throughout their life cycle, through (i) improvements in design methods, (ii) development of concrete mixtures, composite materials, and reinforcement methods, (iii) modernization of concrete technology, (iv) development of integrated design approaches, and (v) innovation in maintenance, repair, demolition, and recycling processes. This requires the involvement of all actors in the construction process, from material manufacturers, designers, and builders to users, and their conviction and initiative in the need to achieve better results in terms of sustainability requirements. This special theme of Structural Concrete journal: Sustainability of Concrete Structures collects a selection of contributions related to different aspects of sustainability showing potential of concrete structures to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations in 2015 as an action plan until 2030. The content of this special theme volume covers issues related to Life Cycle Assessment of concrete structures, carbon neutrality, use of recycled concrete and other recycled components, optimization of concrete structures, and many other issues bringing the contribution of concrete research and development to SDGs. We trust that the presented selection of articles is of interest to the concrete community focusing on the development of concrete structures toward a sustainable and resilient built environment as a contribution for future generations. Petr HajekDepartment of Architectural Engineering,Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic; Member of fib COM7, Convener of fib TG7.1: Sustainable Concrete—general framework; Member of fib COM10, TG10.1: Model Code 2020; Member of TG6.3:Sustainability of structures with precast elements and TG1.5:Structural sustainability. Albert de la Fuente AntequeraAssociate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. Nikola TošićUniversitat Politècnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTECH (UPC), Barcelona, Spain. Irene JosaDepartment of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (UCL), London, UK. Petr Hajek, Department of Architectural Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic; Member of fib COM7, Convener of fib TG7.1: Sustainable Concrete—general framework; Member of fib COM10, TG10.1: Model Code 2020; Member of TG6.3: Sustainability of structures with precast elements and TG1.5: Structural sustainability. Albert de la Fuente Antequera, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain. Nikola Tošić, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTECH (UPC), Jordi Girona 1–3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain. Irene Josa, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London (UCL), London, UK.