Influence of service life, strength and cement type on life cycle environmental performance of concrete

This paper assesses environmental loads of concretes made with Portland blended cements containing different proportions of ground granulated blast furnace slag (ggbs) as clinker replacement and with characteristic compressive strength ranging from 25 to 60 MPa. Impact assessment method CML 2001 v. 2.04 and Life Cycle Assessment platform SimaPro 7.3 respectively supported calculations in terms of environmental impact categories and of a set of life cycle indicators. Service life, estimated via Life 365 v.2.1 software, is tested as a functional unit normalizer for environmental assessment of concrete elements through application to the embodied CO₂ indicator. Increased fractions of ggbs in Portland cement reduce concretes' life cycle environmental loads as indicated by all metrics but blue water footprint. Effects of clinker replacement on the indicators are discussed. Service life consideration proved to add coherence to concrete's environmental, functional and technical quality interpretation.