<p>Cement is an abundantly consumed construction material worldwide. However, its manufacturing is resource- and energy-intensive, requiring 1.5 tonnes of limestone and generating 0.6–0.7 tonnes of CO₂ emissions (per tonne of cement), leading to resource depletion, environmental impacts, and rising production costs. To address these challenges, promoting supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) is a feasible and practical strategy to reduce the carbon footprint and clinker content. While conventional SCMs, such as class F fly ash, blast furnace slag, and silica fume, have been widely utilized, a few emerging SCMs still possess the potential for enabling sustainable construction. This review focuses a comparative ranking assessment on several promising SCMs, including rice husk ash (RHA), sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA), palm oil fuel ash (POFA), coal bottom ash (CBA), red mud (RM), copper slag (CS), basic oxygen furnace slag (BOFS), municipal solid waste incineration ash (MSWIA) and dredged sediments (DS). To support informed decision-making, these alternative materials need to be assessed comprehensively, allowing users to opt based on specific and suitable concrete requirements. This systematic evaluation was conducted based on key material performance aspects such as reactivity, workability, strength, microstructure, hydration products, and durability. Results indicate that biomass ashes (POFA, RHA, and SBA) perform particularly well, with 10–40% effective replacement levels. Among them, POFA demonstrated the strongest performance, exhibiting ~ 75% higher calcium hydroxide consumption and ~ 83–85% greater durability improvement compared to the weakest SCM, MSWIA. These findings contribute to the growing knowledge base supporting the adoption of alternative SCMs, thereby promoting more sustainable and resilient construction practices.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>