Week 12 - Materials

Some interesting findings as a result of LCA for buildings have been summarised below:

• When wooden houses were compared to concrete houses, the overall environmental impact was 21% greater for concrete (Gerrilla et al. 2007)
• Steeel structures for offices consume 75% energy and produces 50% of the GCG emissions compared to reinforced concrete.  However, operationally the concrete structure had a much lower energy consumption making it more environmentally favourable (Xing et al. 2008)
• A comparison of concrete with and without recycled aggregates demonstrated that transportation has a greater environmental impact than the extent of recycling (Mannkovic et al. 2010)
• Best environmental performance for sound insulation was found to be recycled paper>rock wool>polystyrene (Desarnaulds et al. 2005)
• Environmental impact of ceramic tiles is 200% higher than marble tiles (Nicoletti et al. 2002)