Natural Materials Make Concrete the Healthy Choice for Environmentally Responsible Homebuilding

Concrete...The Natural Building Material

Today more than ever, we must choose our building materials wisely, balancing the expenditure of natural resources with the benefits of a material over its useful life. Concrete draws upon some of the earth's most common and abundant minerals for its raw materials. The amount of land used to extract the materials needed to make concrete is only a fraction of that used to cut down our forests for lumber.

Building concrete homes helps save our precious forests. Concrete homes are more energy efficient than wood-frame  homes and therefore require less energy to heat and cool. This reduces emissions produced by power generation plants.

Concrete Uses Recycled Materials

Portland cement, which makes up about 10 percent of concrete, is manufactured from limestone, clay and sand. Scrap tires and other combustible waste that would otherwise take valuable land in landfills are often used as a fuel source in the cement manufacturing process. Sources of aggregates are diverse and plentiful: sand, gravel, crushed stone, and an ever-increasing array of consumer and industrial waste products - fly ash from coal burning electric power plants and blast furnace slag from steel mills. Crushed concrete from demolition is often used as aggregate for concrete. Concrete's nearly inert matrix of materials makes it an ideal recycling medium, with absolutely no degradation of strength or performance.

Limitless Possibilities

Concrete can create any shape or size home you can imagine. Because concrete takes any shape or form, it can create an unlimited variety of curves and angles. Concrete's strength can be used to create large open spaces - offering total flexibility in designing your home's floor plan. 

Healthy Living

Concrete promotes a healthier indoor atmosphere, since it is practically inert, and requires no volatile organic-based preservatives like wood does. It's naturally waterproof and fire-resistant, so it doesn't need special coatings or sealers. Concrete can also be easily cleaned with organic, non-toxic substances. 

Built To Last

Since wood rots and decays, and is an extremely susceptible to natural disaster, it is central to a wasteful construction cycle of frequent disposal and replacement. Concrete, on the other hand, requires little or no maintenance, stands up to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and fires. It can't be eaten by termites and won't rust or rot. Concrete's sheer durability over decades of use goes a long way towards waste reduction. 

Concrete homes promote a healthier and safer environment.

That's The Beauty of Today's Concrete

There's more than one way to build your concrete home - insulating concrete forms, concrete masonry, aerated concrete, tilt-up concrete, or precast concrete to name a few. With volatile wood prices, logging's high environmental price tag, and a growing shortage of high quality lumber, concrete offers a variety of products and construction techniques to provide cost effective, quality alternatives to wood-frame home construction. 

All of these systems share the same basic virtues of concrete - beauty, strength, durability, low maintenance, energy efficiency,  interior environmental quality, environmental friendliness, and peace and quiet. Which concrete building technique is right for you depends on the labor force and predominant building practices in your area. Whatever your choice, you can rest assured that your beautiful concrete home is built to last.

Committee of Climate Change sets out objectives

The first Committee of Climate Change report, under the latest Climate Change Act, sets out key areas for preparing for the impacts of climate change.

Of particular note is the call for a standard to prevent new homes overheating, and promote passive cooling in existing buildings. The Concrete Center has published guidance on passive and active cooling for new build commercial projects and housing and is keen to work with regulators to help inform how the inherent thermal mass of concrete and masonry buildings can be utilized to reduce overheating.

The Center is also already working with house builders and designers on the issue of overheating, and sharing the latest best practice on how to use thermal mass, ventilation and design to reduce the threat of overheating. As the insulation and airtightness of our homes improves overheating is becoming more of an issue, which will only be exacerbated by the increasing temperatures that we are experiencing now, and are forecast to rise even further.

The Committee for Climate Change also recommends that the government extend funding under the Levy Control Framework so the power sector can invest with a 10 year lead time. The concrete industry

can contribute to low carbon energy through the provision of foundations for offshore wind turbines. These are recognized as offering one of the best opportunities for reducing the cost of offshore wind. But for this benefit to be realized, certainty of funding and hence demand is needed to permit the necessary investment to deliver economies of scale.

The concrete industry’s long-term commitment to biodiversity is also relevant to this report, which recommends the preservation and enhancement of the UK’s natural capital.

The materials supply chain for concrete, i.e. cement and aggregates, have an outstanding record in stewardship of the country’s natural capital and restoration following extraction with over 700 Sites of Scientific Interest (SSI) being former sites of minerals extraction. Out of eleven habitats identified by RSPB, mineral sites provide habitats that could meet the targets for nine.

Compared with forestry that negatively impacts biodiversity and adversely affects health of soils for centuries, extraction sites are worked and restored in a period of decades.

Navrattan Group- Providing Sustainable Alternative Products

It is rightly said that when we have to talk about creativity then only sky is the limit. Over the years, India has left no stone unturned to make the best use of its creativity and innovation. We have constantly come up with something new in terms of infrastructure and technology to make earth a better place to live. The efforts have been joined by Navrattan Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate having its headquarters in Trade Centre, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai, India. Having started its first step in 2010, it has spread its verticals across construction, technology, engineering, energy, mining and acquiring Intellectual Properties. It has done its best to achieve customer satisfaction since its inception.

The company has a strong believe that quality along with commitment is the key to success and hence that is also the backbone of the company’s culture. This is what at which their entire business activities are centered. Having a mission of “Building Greener, Cleaner and Better Tomorrow”, the company’s manufacturing locations are spread across India and in USA as well. Mumbai, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Udaipur and Rajpura and own Basalt mines in Bozeman Montana, USA are few of its manufacturing locations.

Mr. Himanshu Verma, the chairman of the group says, “My mission is to invent Reality which will remain Reality not History”, a firm determination towards his work and his passion towards the company is what is taking this company to another height. The Founder and the Chairman of the Group, Mr. Himanshu Verma is a board member ever since its inception. His role in the company is vital due to which the company has got amazing national as well as international exposure. The manifold growth which the company has experienced is all because of his versatility.

Talking about the innovations undertaken by this company is one of its verticals, Navrattan Blue Crete Industries Pvt. Ltd. It is the first venture of its kind in India and has attempted to bring novelty to the technology involved in construction industry of the country. It is the first Eco-friendly concrete material which has triple times the tensile strength and longevity plus durability of that of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The Navrattan Crete is the combination of green Elastopolmeric cement which surpasses all testing standards as OPC. This environment friendly product is very cost effective as compared to the normal raw material.

Significance for the public and the entire country:

In this race of cut throat competition where companies try to maximize their shareholders’ profits, the Navrattan Group has not only thought about making its place in corporate world but has also worked towards the public and towards the entire country. Taking up multiple projects in various verticals like across construction, technology, engineering, energy, mining, acquiring intellectual properties, the company has paved the path which has lead the country towards infrastructural growth and overall prosperity. And now with its latest innovation in construction industry, it has raised its bar of commitment towards the people of the country by providing eco-friendly cement which is not only environment friendly but also a cost effective solution.