Civil Engineering Association

FIB 28: Environmental design

The construction industry, including the concrete industry, faces the transformation process from the traditional building process to the new approach, "sustainable construction". Environmental aspects represent a key role in this process. The principal importance of the environmental impact evaluation of concrete structures follows from the high amount of concrete structures built around the world every year.

The specific amount of harmful impacts embodied in concrete unit is, in comparison with other building materials, relatively small. However, due to the high production of concrete, the final negative environmental impact of concrete structures is significant. Any improvement of concrete design principles, methodologies of assessment, construction and demolition technologies, and management of operation and use of concrete structures thus provides a very significant contribution to the general goal: the achievement of a development process in the sustainable way.

The objective of this state-of-art report is provide the framework of so-called environmental design, to document "Best Available Technology" (BAT) for concrete structures from an environmental point of view and to summarize methodologies for environmental impact evaluation and optimization of concrete structures. Although the authors of the report were from Europe and Japan, it was attempted to collect information as widely as possible.

FIB 28: Environmental design