Paving sustainably
Although the nearly 21 million miles of paved roads around the globe appear static, their environmental footprints are anything but set. When studying all stages of a road’s life using a technique called pavement life-cycle assessment, it becomes clear that a pavement’s environmental impact doesn't end with construction. In fact, there are significant emissions associated with a pavement during its operational life, also known as its use phase. Several factors, like the pavement quality’s impact on fuel efficiency, lighting, and its ability to absorb carbon dioxide through carbonation all contribute to this footprint. What’s more, these factors can vary depending on the pavement’s context, which includes the climate and the amount of traffic. This can make a pavement’s use phase impacts difficult to calculate. In a paper published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, researchers at the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) examine the use phase of pavements and calculate the influence of...