Sustainable Building Forum

Elisabeth Rosenthal at The International Herald Tribune has published an enlightening story highlighting the fundamental issues with green reform in the cement industry.  Her article points out the need for radical thinking in terms of finding a greener alternative to cement as cement's chemical makeup in itself  releases CO2 - a basic problem which can not be overcome. 

Check out the full article at the below link:

Cement: An Enemy of Green? (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/21/business/cement.php)

I'd never thought about it like that before- you're absolutely right, and that doesn't even include the manufacturing of it. Still, cement seems like a preferable alternative to, say, asphalt or something.

One thing they're doing with concrete that seems pretty innovative to me- even though I believe it's been around about 15 years- is permeable concrete. You basically pour and screed a concrete mixture with a ridiculous proportion of large aggregate (and a good amount of several admixtures), and when you're done you have something you can drive on just fine, but it allows water to filter through- even screens some impurities.

Of course, you have to keep it really clean, and it's easy to mess up- but still very intriguing, and much more friendly.