A whole life cycle performance-based ECOnomic and ECOlogical assessment framework (ECO2) for concrete sustainabilityShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Journal of Cleaner Production, ISSN 0959-6526, E-ISSN 1879-1786, Vol. 292, article id 126060Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Concrete is the primary building material worldwide with a substantial impact on the built environment sustainability. Hence, it is necessary to assess concrete's combined functionality, economic and environmental impact. In this paper, two concrete sustainability assessment frameworks, MARS-SC and CONCRETop, were studied. Building on the identified gaps, a new framework, ECO2 was developed. ECO2 is a multi-criteria decision analysis framework that accounts for carbon sequestration of concrete, impact allocation of raw materials, and the impact from the use and end-of-life phases. Hence, it could be used to optimize the proportions of a concrete mix based on a user-defined sustainability objective. A case study concluded that, due to the whole life cycle scope, the environmental impact calculated through ECO2 is 20% higher than that by MARS-SC and CONCRETop. In case of reinforced concrete, where service life requirements are different, the ranking of the alternatives according to ECO2 will significantly change comparatively.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier Ltd , 2021. Vol. 292, article id 126060
Keywords [en]
Concrete, Framework, Life cycle assessment, MCDA, Sustainability, Concrete mixtures, Environmental impact, Reinforced concrete, Built environment, Carbon sequestration, End of lives, Multi-criteria decision analysis, Sustainability assessment, Sustainability objectives, Whole life cycles, Sustainable development
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-52399DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126060Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85100019074OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-52399DiVA, id: diva2:1529524
Note
Funding text 1: The authors acknowledge no conflict of interest. This work is funded by the Faculty of Engineering and Environment’s research development fund (RDF) at Northumbria University , UK.
2021-02-182021-02-182021-02-18Bibliographically approved