Sustainable Development and the Concrete Industry

An appropriate point to start is a reminder that concrete is by far the most important, the most versatile, and the most widely used building material worldwide. It has achieved this predominance because of a number of decisive advantages. If properly designed, it has excellent mechanical properties and is so durable that it can basically last forever. It is moldable into any shape or form and adaptable to all kinds of different applications, geographies and climates. It has excellent fire resistance, is generally available and affordable. Maybe most important, it is an engineered material, which means that we can design mixes to satisfy almost any set of reasonable performance specifications and, if need be, reinforce it with regular steel bars, randomly distributed short fibers, or fiber mesh, thereby widening its range of applicability even further.