Development of ececoncrete. Motivation and regulation in the Netherlands

The building sector, comprising both buildings and infrastructure, is the largest consumer of energy and materials. As well as the huge amount of raw materials involved, enormous amounts of energy are also used for the production and transport of raw materials, building materials and products [1, 2]. Among all building materials, concrete is chemically and physically the most complex, scientifically the most interesting, and its worldwide production is larger than all other man-made materials combined. In this paper methodologies and examples are presented of more environmentally friendly concretes. Also the EU regulations in regard to "non-standard" concretes are addressed, with special emphasis on the Dutch implementation.