Concrete is the most used material for the construction of buildings and civil structures. Concrete and concrete structures should contribute to the development of a sustainably built environment in a socially, environmentally and economically responsible manner. There is no general methodology for sustainability design and assessment of concrete structures covering all important sustainability aspects and all life cycle phases from acquisition of materials, through production of concrete and concrete components, construction, operation of structure, up to demolition and recycling.

The main scope of Commission 7 (COM7) is to develop a strategy as to how to incorporate sustainability issues into the design, construction, operation and demolition of concrete structures. Design concepts of concrete structures should be based on a sustainability framework considering environmental, economic and social aspects. The main focus should be on: the reduction of CO2 emissions from concrete production, the reduction of energy use for construction and the operation of buildings (including thermal mass effect), improving the performance quality of the internal environment (acoustics, thermal well-being, etc.), the reduction of waste to landfill, the development of sustainability metrics and data requirements needed for Environmental Product Declarations and other quality assessment, recycling and use of recycled materials (incl. recycled concrete), resiliency of structures, etc. The goal is to prepare a framework and data for the sustainable design of concrete structures to be implemented in the new fib Model Code MC2020.