Construction Materials and the Environment

▪ Abstract No other industry in the United States uses more materials by weight than the construction industry. Because of its economic strength and societal importance, it is also a significant polluter and a target of growing stakeholder scrutiny. This review offers an extended, supply chain inclusive framework for the study of the construction industry that serves all the life-cycle stages of society's infrastructure systems, and it summarizes selected literature on the life-cycle environmental assessment of construction materials, designs, and processes. On the basis of identified knowledge gaps, a research agenda is discussed for lesser-studied questions in order to first understand and then eventually reduce the environmental impacts of construction materials, processes, and activities.