Sustainable Concrete Structures

Concrete binds a great deal of grey energy – and is also an important factor in terms of CO₂ emissions. While the operation of buildings is being steadily optimised with regard to energy consumption and pollutant emissions, there is still considerable potential with respect to the construction, renovation and demolition of concrete structures. Current research results show how this can be exploited.

Building materials bind a great deal of grey energy and are responsible for a large proportion of CO₂ emissions. Too little attention has been paid to this fact so far. However, the negative effects can be drastically reduced.

The production and transportation of reinforcing and prestressing steel for concrete structures require a lot of energy. However, there are innovative ways for building concrete structures without steel.

If concrete structures are used for longer, their average grey energy and CO₂ emissions per year are reduced. This requires special processes and building materials.