Specifying Sustainable Concrete

Specifying Sustainable Concrete has been The Concrete Centre’s most popular publication title for many years. It is a document that contains information on the specification of concrete according to its constituent parts and was produced to assist designers in making effective decisions regarding the design and specification of concrete for a sustainable outcome using BS 8500.

Since first produced in 2011, and its latest update in 2020, a new revision of BS 8500 has been published. The embodied carbon of cement and concrete has also decreased, and the range of available resources and methods for reducing the embodied carbon of concrete expanded. In order to keep pace with an anticipated continued rate of change, new guidance has been produced in a suite of documents rather than one single publication, each focusing on a specific aspect of specification. They are intended to be complementary to each other and should be read in consultation with each other. The full suite of Specifying Sustainable Concrete titles is listed below, with more titles to be added soon.

	Specifying Sustainable Concrete: Key considerations for specifying lower carbon concrete Concrete is a unique material in that the designer and specifier have the ability to directly influence its embodied carbon. This document aims to provide a summary of key issues for consideration in the specification of lower carbon concrete.
	Specifying Sustainable Concrete: BS 8500 This guide gives a brief overview of the methods of concrete specification using BS EN 206 and BS 8500, and how the method selected may impact the embodied carbon of the concrete. It is not a fully comprehensive method of specification and so reference should be made to BS 8500- 1:2023 Specification of Concrete.
	Specifying Sustainable Concrete: Aggregates This document aims to assist those involved in the specification of concrete by providing a comprehensive understanding of the types of aggregates used in concrete and offering guidance on their use.
	Specifying Sustainable Concrete: Reinforcement This short guide covers the range of opportunities for designers to reduce the environmental impact of steel reinforcement through specification.
	Specifying Sustainable Concrete: Supplementary Cementitious Materials Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are materials that may be used as part of the binder in concrete. SCMs can be lower in embodied carbon than Portland cement and are consequently an important part of the net zero jigsaw. This document introduces SCMs and some alternative binder technologies.
	Specifying Sustainable Concrete: Using 56 Day Concrete Strengths Specifying concrete strength at 56 days, rather than the traditional 28 days, can reduce embodied carbon. In appropriate situations specifying at 56 days should have little or no effect on design. This publication explains concrete strengths in more detail.