ACADEMIA Letters Toward Greener Concrete for Better Sustainable Environment Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, College of Design Construction and Planning, University of Florida Maryam Kouhirostami, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, College of Design Construction and Planning, University of Florida 1. Introduction Until recently, concrete was viewed as a strong motive in creating civilizations throughout history, and an enabler for their economic and social growth, especially after World War II (Dean, 2017). Concrete is one of the highly consumed materials that shaped most of the heavy constructions in the U.S., including bridges, high-rise buildings, and infrastructure (Rodgers, 2018). Concrete has changed the shape of architecture in the U.S. and become a major key in the post-modern architectural movement by adding fexibility to the various design scales from small houses to skyscrapers. In addition, the concrete industry played a signifcant role in improving living standards by contributing to the national economic growth in the U.S. for the past century (Mishra & Siddiqui, 2014). Nevertheless, when the environmental movements started in the past fve decades in the U.S. to warn the public about the impact of the concrete industry on the environment, the image of concrete changed in the eyes of the public, and it got the reputation of being evil to the environment. In 2015, environmental reports showed that concrete accounted for 23.1 million tons of solid waste in the U.S., contributing to more than 85% of the total demolition waste (Spiegel, 2019). In addition to over-consuming natural resources due to the excessive concrete production in the U.S., storing an excessive amount of concrete waste in cities’ landflls is Academia Letters, September 2021 Corresponding Author: Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, eng.amer_hamad@live.com Citation: Abukhalaf, A.H.I., Kouhirostami, M. (2021). Toward Greener Concrete for Better Sustainable Environment. Academia Letters, Article 3485. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3485. 1 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0