## 1 Introduction  
The continuous growth of the world's population, coupled with the accelerated pace of urbanization, has resulted in a substantial increase in global demand for concrete [1]. As the most widely used man-made material and the second-most-consumed material by humans after water, concrete is widely valued for its versatility, satisfactory mechanical performance, ease of molding, and relatively low cost [2; 3; 4]. This soaring demand, primarily driven by construction activities, has led to a global production of 4.2 billion tonnes in 2022, with projections indicating that this figure could rise to 5 billion tonnes annually over the next 30 years [5; 6]. However, the large-scale production of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), one of the primary components of concrete, is associated with high energy consumption and significant greenhouse gas emissions, contributing approximately 6-8% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions globally. These CO\({}_{2}\) emissions originate mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels and the decarbonation of limestone (CaCO\({}_{3}\)\(\rightarrow\) CaO + CO\({}_{2}\)) during the clinker production process [7; 8]. Additionally, the demolition of buildings at the end of their service life generates considerable amounts of construction and demolition waste (CDW), representing approximately 25-30% of the world's total solid waste [9; 10]. A significant fraction of CDW is either landfilled or illegally disposed of in vacant lots, riverbanks, and along roadsides [10; 11; 12], leading to severe environmental consequences, such as soil degradation, contamination of rivers and lakes, obstruction of urban drainage systems, and a range of social, economic, and public health issues [13; 14]. Accordingly, the construction sector must adopt strategies that curb these environmental impacts to protect natural ecosystems and secure a sustainable future for coming generations. In this context, the development of more sustainable and environmentally friendly concrete--commonly referred to as green concrete--has become a priority [15]. One of the most effective strategies to reduce CO\({}_{2}\) emissions associated with concrete production involves the incorporation of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) as partial replacements for Portland cement [15; 16]. SCMs not only contribute to the decarbonization of concrete, but also enhance its mechanical performance, increase durability, and reduce production costs [17; 18; 19]. Beyond their role in decarbonizing cement production, SCMs improve durability by mitigating deleterious reactions such as alkali-silica reaction (ASR), due to their ability to consume portlandite and limit alkali mobility within the pore solution [20; 21]. Commonly used SCMs include fly ash (FA), ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), and silica fume (SF) [19; 22; 23; 24]. However, growing environmental and supply concerns related to the high demand for cement in concrete production highlight the importance of exploring alternative SCMs. This need has become even more pressing due to the declining availability of fly ash, a widely used SCM, as a result of the global shift away from coal-fired power plants [25]. Among these alternatives, copper slag (CS)--a massive waste of the copper smelting process worldwide--has emerged as a promising candidate, particularly given the rising demand for copper in the context of the global energy transition [26; 27; 28]. CS is generated during the copper smelting process in furnaces, with approximately 2.2 to 3 tons of CS produced per tonne of metallic refined copper. Globally, this results in an estimated annual 68.8 million tons produced each year, much of which remains under-utilized. CS is primarily composed of Fe\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\), SiO\({}_{2}\), Al\({}_{2}\)O\({}_{3}\), and CaO [29; 30; 31; 32], with a mineralogical composition mainly consisting of fayalite (Fe\({}_{2}\)SiO\({}_{4}\)) and magnetite (Fe\({}_{3}\)O\({}_{4}\)) [33].