The global production of construction binder is 7.5 billion tons per year and, as a consequence of its popularity, the production of cement, lime, gypsum, bitumen, and others are responsible for almost 10% of global CO2 emissions. Reducing this carbon footprint is a key aim of the binder industry and of researchers worldwide, leading to the development of a number of new binder materials including by-products.

Many solutions have been proposed, either replacing the cement with conventional supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as fly ash and ground-granulated blast furnace slag or the use of novel SCMs and industrial by-products such as rice husk ash and calcined clays in the development of binders not only for the Portland cement-based construction materials, but also lime, gypsum, bitumen, geopolymer, and calcium-sulfo-aluminate binder-based construction materials. However, there is still considerable research needed to demonstrate, with confidence, that using by-products in this way offers comparable lifetime performance to conventional construction binders. Furthermore, there is a need for more nuanced environmental assessment than just embodied carbon per unit mass. Improved sustainability can also be achieved by the use of locally sourced materials or by developing more efficient, cost-effective, and durable structures.

This Special Issue invites submissions on any aspect of transforming by-products into materials for use in construction technology. Original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Non-portland cement binders with by-products
• Nanotechnology for transforming by-products into materials for use in construction technology
• Performance testing transforming by-products into materials for use in construction technology
• Analysis and characterization of transforming by-products into materials for use in construction technology
• Lifecycle assessment of transforming by-products into materials for use in construction technology
• Failure mechanisms of transforming by-products into materials for use in construction technology