Abstract
The importance of environmental consequences due to diverse substances that are emitted during the production of concrete is recognized, but environmental performance tends to be evaluated separately from the economic performance and durability performance of concrete. In order to evaluate concrete from the perspective of sustainable development, evaluation technologies are required for comprehensive assessment of environmental performance, economic performance, and durability performance based on a concept of sustainable development called the triple bottom line (TBL). Herein, an assessment method for concrete eco-efficiency is developed as a technique to ensure the manufacture of highly durable and eco-friendly concrete, while minimizing both the load on the ecological environment and manufacturing costs. The assessment method is based on environmental impact, manufacturing costs, and the service life of concrete. According to our findings, eco-efficiency increased as the compressive strength of concrete increased from 21 MPa to 40 MPa. The eco-efficiency of 40 MPa concrete was about 50% higher than the eco-efficiency of 24 MPa concrete. Thus eco-efficiency is found to increase with an increasing compressive strength of concrete because the rate of increase in the service life of concrete is larger than the rate of increase in the costs. In addition, eco-efficiency (KRW/year) was shown to increase for all concrete strengths as mixing rates of admixtures (Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag) increased to 30% during concrete mix design. However, when the mixing rate of admixtures increased to 40% and 60%, the eco-efficiency dropped due to rapid reduction in the service life values of concrete to 74 (year/m3) and 44 (year/m3), respectively.
Highlights
As argued by the “Declaration of Concrete Environment (2010)” of Korea and the “Declaration of Asian Concrete Environment (2011)” of six Asian countries, concrete has been shown to have an extremely large impact on environmental issues, including climate change [1]
Eco-efficiency was found to increase with the increasing compressive strength of concrete, because the rate of increase in service life is larger than the rate of increase in cost [48]
When mixing rates of admixtures were increased to 40% and 60%, the eco-efficiency of concrete samples dropped due to the rapid reduction of service life to 74 and 44, In addition, the service life of concrete based on carbonation was reduced from 89 to 79 according to increased mixing rates of admixtures
Summary
As argued by the “Declaration of Concrete Environment (2010)” of Korea and the “Declaration of Asian Concrete Environment (2011)” of six Asian countries, concrete has been shown to have an extremely large impact on environmental issues, including climate change [1]. Assessment of the environmental impacts of concrete materials and production has considerable importance. High-strength concrete has been evaluated to determine whether it is responsible for greater environmental emissions in comparison to normal-strength concrete in the context of environmental impact. The importance of ecosystem effects of diverse substances with environmental impacts emitted during the production of concrete is recognized, but environmental performance has been evaluated separately from (and prioritized less than) the economic performance and durability performance of Sustainability 2016, 8, 705. The importance of ecosystem effects of diverse substances with environmental impacts emitted dSuusrtianingabtilhitey 2p0r1o6d, 8u, c7t0i5on of concrete is recognized, but environmental performance has been evalu3aotfe1d9 separately from (and prioritized less than) the economic performance and durability performance of ccoonnccrreettee. TThhee tteecchhnniiqquuee pprrooppoosseedd iinn tthhiiss ssttuuddyy iinntteennddss ttoo pprroodduuccee eennvviirroonnmmeenntt--ffrriieennddllyy aanndd hhiigghhllyy dduurraabblleeccoonnccrreetteewwhhiilleemmiinniimmiizziinnggbbootthhtthheeeennvviirroonnmmeennttaallllooaaddoonntthhee eeccoossyysstteemm aanndd mmaannuuffaaccttuurriinngg ccoossttss aassssoocciiaatteedd wwiitthh tthhee pprroodduuccttiioonn aanndd uussee ooff ccoonnccrreettee. Eco-efficiency is a concept for the sustainable development of products with competitive prices that simultaneously satisfies both environmental and social purposes
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