Sand and stone are arguably the most common materials on the planet earth. Most sand and stone for concrete is dug from gravel pits, which are by their nature, noisy and dirty places but, they don't stay that way. One need only take a drive out to Coquitlam in the lower mainland of British Columbia. Spend a day at Lafarge Lake to see what can be made of an old gravel pit. This is a beautiful park with a running track, stadium and other facilities set around a small lake. Many gravel pits no longer in use have been similarly renovated. Thus it may be argued that not only does this part of the concrete making process not deplete the environment but it often leaves beautiful recreational areas in its wake.

Cement is the primary active ingredient in concrete and is manufactured using mostly limestone, sand and clay, all abundant materials. These materials are typically quarried with the old pits again often leaving behind beautiful recreation facilities. One example of an abandoned limestone quarry is Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia. These materials are "burned" in a kiln using mostly fossil fuels as a source of heat and then ground into the final product, Portland cement.

Unfortunately all building materials require some level of energy consumption in their production. A way to measure materials against one another is to examine the total "embodied energy" for a given building. Embodied energy, in this instance, is all the energy used to extract or produce the material up to construction site delivery. Studies show that concrete compares favorably to other building materials in terms of both embodied energy as well as total carbon dioxide emissions.