Sustainable Construction: role and possibilities to development of concrete like a sustainable material

Abstract

Chile is undergoing a transition process towards economic development through the last decade. Just as it has happened previously in other countries, this development can have a serious impact on the environment. In both senses the Construction Industry plays a very important role. In this context, the paper presents the results of a research where was used fly ash for lightweight aggregates production to structural concretes. The result of these research allowed to comprobe the technical viability to fabricate these products. The degree of Sustainability of the material development was evaluated with a methodology what alloved to generate a stamp of certification or “green seal” to certify construction materials, aspect also detail it in this paper. Like a conclusion, this paper presents two ways to advance toward the sustainability, establishing lineaments to point at a sustainable construction by means of the application of clean technologies. In this sense it obtain develop an artificial aggregates with adequate physical and mechanics properties to use in structural lightweight concretes, on the other hand, was development a tool to the certify the environmental performance, evaluating the associates impacts during the life cycle of the construction materials.