The ultra-green concrete (UGC) concept is founded in a well-known fact: cement is not a construction material, concrete is. While cement plays a major role in the overall CO2 footprint of concrete, what matters in the end is the embodied CO2 content of one cubic meter of concrete that will be placed in the field. In a sense, the UGC concept shifts the attention from clinker factor (kg CO2eq/kg cement) back to concrete (kg CO2eq/m3 concrete).
UGC founds itself on previous developments that advanced low-carbon technologies significantly, such as LC3. However, by shifting the attention back to concrete, it becomes clear that in addition to clinker factor reduction in cement, the concrete mixture design process should be addressed. This configures the UGC two-fold strategy that sustain the scientific and technical support of the UGC technology.
The UGC project is currently supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation through an Ambizione fellowship granted in 2022 to Dr. Franco Zunino, principal investigator of the project who coined the UGC concept.
