Abstract:
In construction industry where concrete is the main ingredient is experiencing a rapid
growth in recent. Many cement manufacturing plants, aggregate production units, ready
mix concrete production facilities and other factories related to concrete industry are
rapidly increasing. Whole industry is working relentlessly to meet this growing demand.
However, little is known about the sustainability of materials, practices and procedures
that are followed in this industry. As a step towards understanding the sustainability
issues related to the concrete industry of Bangladesh, this paper elaborates the
perspectives held by the members and stakeholder in this sector on sustainable practices
and materials through investigation consisting of survey of industry experts and other
stakeholders. The investigation is aimed at to evaluate the level of sustainability
knowledge of different personnel associated with this industry and their concept towards
making this industry more sustainable. The different groups of personnel that are
interviewed for this purpose include academics; consultants, design and field level
engineers; personnel involved in technical issues of cement and ready-mix concrete
factories; contractors and owner of construction related industries. Available data
through these interviews are then processed to examine its different features. Data
shows most of the persons surveyed at least have little knowledge about sustainability of
concrete except for the contractors where, majority have no knowledge about
sustainability. Overwhelming 80% interviewed believe that concrete industry of
Bangladesh needs change to make concrete industry more sustainable. Majority of those
who are aware of sustainability issues emphasized on use of alternative ingredients for
cement and aggregate production for a more sustainable concrete industry. While a few
people emphasized on increasing durability of structures through better concrete and
thereby reducing the overall environmental impact from a life cycle point of view. From
this research, present scenario related to sustainability in Bangladeshi concrete industry,
concrete materials and concrete structures will be evident. This is why the perspective of
sustainability in the concrete industry of Bangladesh needs to be studied from the
context of factors affecting this country only.
