Developing a Material Sustainable Performance Score (MSPS) to select an alternative Cementitious Material

Sustainable construction became an integral part of reducing the impact on social, economic and environmental aspects in developed and developing countries. To achieve sustainability in construction, selection of material plays an important role. In the present work, a comprehensive review of sustainable indicators and criteria for evaluating construction material is carried out considering Environment, Social, Economic and Technological criteria. These criteria and indicators are then utilized to develop a framework for selecting the best sustainable material among given alternatives. In the present study, the sustainable performance of a material is assessed keeping in view the material life cycle i.e. Pre-Construction phase, Construction phase and Post Construction phase with respect to sustainable criteria and indicators. A decision-making framework is formulated to rank the sustainable materials among available alternatives by using Analytic Hierarchy Process. The developed framework is demonstrated through a case study to select the best sustainable alternative among available cementitious material for binder replacement in concrete to obtain a Material Sustainable Performance Score is obtained. The alternative with the highest SMS is ranked as best sustainable material among given alternatives. The developed framework facilitates the designer in selecting an optimum sustainable material depending on criteria preference.