Equivalent performance concept - green concrete

Article by Claus Pade, Danish Technological Institute, Concrete Centre
Featured at “Technical Seminar – Fly ash in Concrete”, Poland, 9-11 March 2005

Green concrete has nothing to do with color – it is a concept of thinking environment into concrete considering every aspect from raw materials manufacture over mixture design to structural design, construction, service life, and even the secondary life of concrete e.g. demolition and re-use of the demolished concrete. In Denmark we are committed through the Kyoto agreement to reduce CO₂ -emission by 21% of the 1990 level before 2012. The large innovation consortium project “Resource saving concrete structures” was launched in 1998 with the objective of demonstrating that concrete structures with lower environmental impact could be made without compromising durability and economy. The present paper will, with the focus on raw materials, mixture design and use of fly ash, present some of findings from the original innovation consortium project as well from later projects dealing with the production of more environmentally friendly concrete.