Green Concrete: A Pathway to enhance environmental sustainability

In the era of environmental sustainability, green isn't limited to just a color, it represents the whole environment, the most important part globally. Construction industry is the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) contributor because of producing 10 billion tons of concrete per year worldwide. Over 70% of the global population is surrounded by concrete structures starting from bridges, large buildings to residences. However, increasing uses of concrete across the world poses a significant threat for construction industries to adopt greener practices. Among these, the concept of Green concrete emerged as an effective alternative to protect the environment and fulfill construction needs. In this blog, we are going to understand Green concrete and how it can make a positive impact in protecting the environment.

Understanding Green concrete

Green concrete is relatively a new term that is manufactured by using waste or residual material across industries. Compared to traditional concrete, manufacturing of green concrete takes less energy for production, less production of carbon dioxide, and is cheap and durable. As one of the leader of Readymix concretes (RMC), we at Firstchoice Readymix aims to lower the burden on natural resources by adopting green concrete and also increased the dependency over recycled materials. Green concrete is manufactured with the incorporation of recycled aggregates which includes crushed Concrete, industrial by- products and waste material from other industries. Construction industries can lower their dependencies solely on natural aggregates like sand, gravel by adopting green concrete. Implementing this practice not only helps to reduce carbon emissions while manufacturing but also lower the demand for virgin material and also diverts wastes from landfills that can contribute to a circular economy.

Alternatives of Traditional concrete

Manufacturing process of concrete can be replaced where Cement can be replaced with various eco-friendly construction materials. Ideal replacement of Cement can be: Fly Ash, which is a byproduct of combustion of coal which is a mixture of lime and water that makes it strong and durable. It can replace 15%- 25% cement in concrete. Blast furnace slag, produced by quenching molten iron slag from blast furnace into water that can replace 70%-80% cement. Micro silica, produced from ferrosilicon alloy and silicon production that can replace 7%-12% cement in concrete Aggregates can be replaced by: Paper/ fiber can replace cement in the concrete mixture. Concrete debris, able to lower resources consumption in concrete production. Plastic waste, can replace 20% of aggregates and provide strength to the structures Alternative of CO2 emitting concrete: Magnesium sulphate, as Co2 absorbing concrete, can absorb 0.6 tons of Co2 compared to traditional concrete.

Advantage of using Green Concrete

1.Effect on environment

The manufacturing process of traditional concrete is highly energy intensive which contributes 8% of overall Co2 only from calcination processes. As a result, extraction of raw materials, transportation and using non- renewable energy increases environmental burden and also contributes towards environmental degradation. Firstchoice Readymix, leading construction concrete supplier we have designed our products or continue to work on ecological footprint to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In doing so, we are focusing on using industrial wastes like Fly Ash, blast furnace slag to replace 25%-100% Portland Cement in a concrete mix that can lower the burden on landfills and also keep many acres land free. As a leading construction concrete supplier at Firstchoice Readymix aims to reduce energy consumption as well by using Fly Ash, silica fume because these are not expending more energy like coal in traditional concrete. As a result, we can lower the reliance over natural gas or coal and also keep raw materials intact to avoid biodiversity loss.

2. Reducing Co2 emissions

In order to ensure environmental sustainability, Green concrete comes with significant advantages of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. FCR, as leading Readymix Concrete (RMC) provider, we recommend to follow various methods such as Fly Ash, slag, silica fume as alternative Cementitious materials to prevent carbon footprint during the calcination process. However, involving these materials can give cement-like durability, lower the process time and also keep maximum profit margin as compared to traditional concrete. For example- Our expertise at Firstchoice Readymix includes fiber reinforced concrete elements replacing 30% of the Portland cement to strengthen the material durability. Inclusion of fiber reinforced concrete depleted the need of steel reinforcement which was able to prevent overall carbon emissions from any construction projects. On the other hand, Carbon capture and storage (CCS) alongside fiber reinforced concrete also another innovative approach significantly contributes in reducing carbon intensity within concrete mix.

3. Impact on global warming

Global warming is mainly caused due to accumulation of greenhouse gas which comes from construction projects. Construction industry is having higher reliance on energy intensive processes which are required to replace it with industrial suitable waste. For example- Incorporating Readymix Concrete solutions of FCR designed with ecological footprint that leads to more energy efficient construction structures with lower maintenance and durability. Incorporating this element not only reduces carbon emissions but also keeps it away from any damages. FCR, as a leading construction concrete supplier, is highly focused on using green concrete more in urban infrastructure projects including roads and bridges so that the city can become resilient to climate change. Moreover, inclusion of green concrete is also able to reduce urban heat island effect which can keep urban areas warmer than rural to balance earth temperature and protect earth from global warming.

4. Saving cement and lower natural resources depletion

Cement production in construction projects leading contributors of environmental impact. Introduction of green concrete is to lower the dependency solely on cement by replacing it with alternative materials. Incorporating construction concrete suppliers or FCR’s with advanced admixtures, green concrete can achieve better performance with lower cement content. It can result in increasing workability, providing strength and durability of the concrete without compromising cement quality. Focusing on environmental sustainability, we at Firstchoice Readymix promotes green concrete practices to keep natural resources by incorporating recycled aggregates to ensure lower energy in production, less use of virgin materials and decreasing Carbon dioxide emission.