<p>This study comprehensively evaluates the environmental footprint and production economics of alkali-activated materials (AAMs) as a sustainable alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). A life cycle assessment (LCA), grounded in industrial operational data from a cement production facility, was conducted to quantify key environmental impact categories. Results demonstrate that AAM production exhibits substantially lower environmental burdens across most impact categories, with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) identified as the dominant environmental hotspot. Despite higher alkali activator requirements, AAMs demonstrate superior sustainability relative to OPC; a 5% reduction in activator input yields a 6.34% decrease in global warming potential (GWP). Furthermore, the incorporation of vitrified fly ash slag (FVS) and ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) significantly mitigates fossil resource depletion and greenhouse gas emission. Economically, AAMs incur a higher production cost (0.2528/kg) than OPC (0.11/kg), with alkali activators accounting for over 50% of total expenditures. Nevertheless, their substantial environmental benefits underscore considerable potential for cost mitigation through process optimization and activator efficiency enhancement. This work presents a novel, integrated environmental and economic assessment of AAMs utilizing municipal solid waste-derived FVS as a partial GGBS substitute. Collectively, these findings provide actionable insights for scaling AAMs as a technically viable, economically promising, and environmentally sustainable construction material.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>