Does Concrete Support Green Building Objectives?

Many people have a negative view of concrete as a building material that supports green building objectives. It is true that concrete does take a lot of energy to produce and transport (to smaller sites where on-site batching is not feasable). Concrete does consume water during the manufacturing process. But those are narrow views that do not hold up under critical examination.

LEED sustainable design principles have five disciplinary focuses:

• Sustainable sites
• Water efficiency
• Energy and atmosphere
• Materials and resources
• Indoor environmental quality

Concrete is recognized as a green building material in terms of qualification under LEED certification principles. The five ways that concrete can help support green building objectives:

This is a video that explains how concrete fits these principles:

 

1. Concrete creates sustainable sites.
2. Concrete enhances energy performance.
3. Concrete contains recycled materials.
4. Concrete is manufactured locally.
5. Concrete builds durable structures.

 

For residential construction, the main guiding principle for design over the last 60 years has been on affordability. Trying to match the overall cost to produce the home to the ability of the local market's economic base to afford the home.

This led to design decisions soley focused on initial costs that did not account for lifecycle analysis that would dictate different decisions if the installed and operating and maintenace costs were analyzed over a specific lifecycle. If fact, not one has ever sat down and really focused on what is a reasonable economic lifecycle to build to when it comes to residential structures for the mass market.

There have been some studies, but the market has never really focused on this previously in establishing a target sustainability for building homes to. The focus has been on costs, profit to the developer, profit to the builder and profit to the financing entity. to be fair, there are so many layered costs dictated by housing regulation, that has made it almost an impossibility to make these considerations very high in priority. Part of that is attributable to the structure of regulations tha deal with the development of housing for the larger market.

But, getting back to concrete. Because it creates very durable structures,first and formeost, lands it in the sustainable category. It would be hard to argue that building a home that lasts 2-300 years is not worth the expenditure of resources required to build that home. Properly built and maintained, this is definitely an achievable goal, we have examples all over the United States and Europe towards this end. One thing about concrete is that it is not a very friendly DIY material to work with. The skills, and equipment necessary typically exclude it as a DIY project.

Next, final production of concrete occurs close to the site of installation, again this is in conformance with LEED principles. Concrete can also contain recycled concrete as an aggregate although there are greater opportunities to expand this practice. The highest profile example of large scale concrete recycling back into a redevelopment occurred in the late 90's and early part of this decade in the redevelopment of Stapleton International Airport from the main airport in Denver into an urban mixed use suburb. All of the concrete from the runways was recycled back into this and other construction projects in the Denver urban landscape.

To be sure, there are new technologies and ways of thinking, such as precast panels used as basement walls.

 

 

Precast Basement Wall Section, Source: http://www.thermonex.co.uk/

 

 

 

So analyzing concrete as a sustainable material is perfectly valid and in the case of residential foundations and homes built in high-risk areas (Florida and coastal hurricane zones) certainly support green building objectives. There is no currently available material that can offer the durability of concrete under the stresses of soils that are subject to expansion forces that can destroy a foundation. Building a foundation that can be viable for 2-400 years allowing the recycling of the basement over that lifespan, further establishes the viability of concrete as a green building material.

 

 

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