1. Sustainable Development in Concrete Production

Environmental issues such as climate change and associated global warming, depletion of natural resources and biodiversity, water and soil pollutions, generation of huge amounts of waste materials and their disposal are some of the great challenges faced by present-day civilisation. The emission of large amounts of particulate materials and various noxious gases including CO₂, the major greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, due to rapid industrial and population expansions, is a major environmental concern and urgent action is necessary to control it. Each of these issues creates serious crisis to the future development of humankind if they are not tackled properly. The evaluation of the impact of the current developments on the environment is therefore an important agenda for present-day policy-makers and several initiatives have already been taken to tackle the problems related to these issues. Thus the term “sustainable development” was developed, which proposes a developing society, where people will live in a healthy environment with improved economic and social conditions.