Trade-Off between the Social and Environmental Performance of Green Concrete: The Case of 6 Countries
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2018

Improving the sustainability performance of construction industry is driven by two forces: regulatory push (policy initiatives), and market pull where improving a corporate sustainability
performance can be financially beneficial for enterprises. Through the investigation of the sustainability hotspots and impacts, concerning social and environmental, of the steel slag mixed concrete (green concrete) the study assessed the factors relevant for its performance and examined how to improve them. Hotspot analysis and impact assessments were conducted by social and environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). The assessed green concrete represented not just the variety of geographic representation but also the product designs (three different slag contents) and the potential difference occurring from the corporate efforts, where four classes were introduced. The investigation of the social and environmental hotspots of the green concrete revealed a difference in the relation between the sustainability performance and steel slags. While the increased slag content resulted in worse social performance, the increase improved the environmental performance in all six investigated case countries. This trade-off between the social and environmental performance implied the limits of the sustainable product design and suggested the effectiveness of the supply chain management for improving the two sustainability performances for the green concrete.

life cycle thinking

social life cycle assessment

construction industry

SLCA

alternative cement

LCT

building materials

life cycle assessment

Författare

Jun Kono

Chalmers, Arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik, Byggnadsteknologi

York Ostermeyer

Chalmers, Arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik, Byggnadsteknologi

Holger Wallbaum

Chalmers, Arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik, Byggnadsteknologi

Sustainability

20711050 (eISSN)

Vol. 10 7 2309

Drivkrafter

Hållbar utveckling

Innovation och entreprenörskap

Ämneskategorier

Materialteknik

Samhällsbyggnadsteknik

Tvärvetenskapliga studier

Företagsekonomi

Styrkeområden

Building Futures (2010-2018)

Energi

DOI

10.3390/su10072309

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2021-05-26