Green concrete: A review of recent developments

So much innovations have ensued in the concrete industry in the last decade, especially in terms of ensuring concrete sustainability and its green initiatives. A call for sustainability is imminent in the industry as the production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) which is the main binder of concrete contributes about 8% to the world’s human-induced carbon dioxide emission. In addition, the production of concrete has posed a huge threat on natural deposits of raw materials. With billions of tons of concrete expected to be produced in the coming years to meet our infrastructure demand, it is critical for other alternatives to be considered for concrete production. Such alternatives mostly fit as partial or total replacement of OPC and aggregates. This paper explored the sustainable advantage of alkali-activated binders, supplementary cementitious materials, and recycled materials as raw materials in concrete. This short review has shown that it is possible to achieve a greener concrete with enhanced properties compared to the conventional concrete with the use of new materials. Also, on the ground of economic importance, the new materials were found to have better performance than the conventional ones