Effect of construction materials on embodied energy and cost of buildings—A case study of residential houses in India up to 60m2 of plinth area

This study analyses the case study of a deconstruction project called the ‘Whole House Reuse’ (WHR) which aimed, firstly, to harvest materials from a residential house, secondly, to produce new products using the recovered materials, and thirdly, to organize exhibition for the local public to promote awareness on resource conservation and sustainable deconstruction practices. The study applies characterization of recovered materials through deconstruction. In addition to the material recovery, the study assesses the embodied energy saving and greenhouse gas emission abatement of the deconstruction project. Around twelve tonnes of various construction materials were harvested through a systematic deconstruction approach, most which would otherwise be disposed to landfill in the traditional demolition approach. The study estimates that the recovered materials could potentially save around 502,158MJ of embodied energy and prevent carbon emission of around 27,029kg (CO2e). Deconstruction could eventually contribute to New Zealand’s national emission reduction targets. In addition, the project successfully engages local communities and designers to produce 400 new products using the recovered materials and exhibited to the local people. The study concludes that there is a huge prospect in regard to resource recovery, emission reduction, employment and small business opportunities using deconstruction of the old house. The socio-cultural importance of the WHR project is definitely immense; however, the greater benefits of such projects are often ignored and remain unreported to wider audiences as most of the external and environmental costs have not been considered in the traditional linear economy. It is acknowledged that under a favourable market condition and with appropriate support from local communities and authorities, deconstruction could contribute significantly to resource conservation and environmental protection despite its requirement of labour intensive efforts.

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Resource Harvesting through a Systematic Deconstruction of the Residential House: A Case Study of the ‘Whole House Reuse’ Project in Christchurch, New Zealand

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10103430 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 3430 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Atiq Zaman ◽

Juliet Arnott ◽

Kate Mclntyre ◽

Jonathon Hannon

Keyword(s):

Emission Reduction ◽

New Products ◽

Construction Materials ◽

Resource Conservation ◽

Local Communities ◽

Embodied Energy ◽

Market Condition ◽

Material Recovery ◽

Residential House

This study analyzes the case study of a deconstruction project called the ‘Whole House Reuse’ (WHR) which aimed, firstly, to harvest materials from a residential house, secondly, to produce new products using the recovered materials, and thirdly, to organize exhibition for the local public to promote awareness on resource conservation and sustainable deconstruction practices. The study applies characterization of recovered materials through deconstruction. In addition to the material recovery, the study assesses the embodied energy saving and greenhouse gas emissions abatement of the deconstruction project. Around twelve tons of various construction materials were harvested through a systematic deconstruction approach, most of which would otherwise be disposed to landfill in the traditional demolition approach. The study estimates that the recovered materials could potentially save around 502,158 MJ of embodied energy and prevent carbon emissions of around 27,029 kg (CO2e). The deconstruction could eventually contribute to New Zealand’s national emission reduction targets. In addition, the project successfully engages local communities and designers to produce 400 new products using the recovered materials and exhibits them to the local people. The study concludes that there is a huge prospect in regard to resource recovery, emission reduction, employment, and small business opportunities using deconstruction of the old house. The sociocultural importance of the WHR project is definitely immense; however, the greater benefits of such projects are often ignored and remain unreported to wider audiences as most of the external and environmental costs are not considered in the traditional linear economy. It is acknowledged that under a favorable market condition and with appropriate support from local communities and authorities, deconstruction could contribute significantly to resource conservation and environmental protection despite its requirement of labor-intensive efforts.

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Agriculture—Things That Are Grown

10.1093/oso/9780198802297.003.0014 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Rez

Keyword(s):

Crop Yields ◽

Animal Feed ◽

Electrical Power ◽

Construction Materials ◽

Embodied Energy ◽

Liquid Fuels ◽

Energy Output ◽

Recycled Paper ◽

Additional Energy ◽

Energy Inputs

Timber has the lowest embodied energy of any of the construction materials. Paper production from trees requires much more energy. There is some energy saving in recycling, as recycled paper substitutes for pulp derived from wood chips. Growing crops for food also requires energy. The energy required for plants to grow comes from the sun, but there are additional energy inputs from fertiliser and farm machinery to speed up the growth process and vastly improve crop yields. If grains are used as animal feed, then the energy inputs are much larger than the dietary energy output—the larger the animal and the longer it is fattened up before slaughter, the more inefficient the process. The use of crops to make fuel for electrical power generation or for processing into liquid fuels is horribly inefficient. The problem is simple—the plants do not grow fast enough!

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A Comprehensive Framework for Standardising System Boundary Definition in Life Cycle Energy Assessments

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings11060230 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 230

Author(s):

Hossein Omrany ◽

Veronica Soebarto ◽

Jian Zuo ◽

Ruidong Chang

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Use ◽

Embodied Energy ◽

Building Energy Efficiency ◽

System Boundary ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Energy Assessment ◽

Boundary Definition ◽

Comprehensive Framework

This paper aims to propose a comprehensive framework for a clear description of system boundary conditions in life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) analysis in order to promote the incorporation of embodied energy impacts into building energy-efficiency regulations (BEERs). The proposed framework was developed based on an extensive review of 66 studies representing 243 case studies in over 15 countries. The framework consists of six distinctive dimensions, i.e., temporal, physical, methodological, hypothetical, spatial, and functional. These dimensions encapsulate 15 components collectively. The proposed framework possesses two key characteristics; first, its application facilitates defining the conditions of a system boundary within a transparent context. This consequently leads to increasing reliability of obtained LCEA results for decision-making purposes since any particular conditions (e.g., truncation or assumption) considered in establishing the boundaries of a system under study can be revealed. Second, the use of a framework can also provide a meaningful basis for cross comparing cases within a global context. This characteristic can further result in identifying best practices for the design of buildings with low life cycle energy use performance. Furthermore, this paper applies the proposed framework to analyse the LCEA performance of a case study in Adelaide, Australia. Thereafter, the framework is utilised to cross compare the achieved LCEA results with a case study retrieved from literature in order to demonstrate the framework’s capacity for cross comparison. The results indicate the capability of the framework for maintaining transparency in establishing a system boundary in an LCEA analysis, as well as a standardised basis for cross comparing cases. This study also offers recommendations for policy makers in the building sector to incorporate embodied energy into BEERs.

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The Budget as a Basis for Ecological Management of Urbanization Projects. Case Study in Seville, Spain

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13074078 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 4078

Author(s):

María Rocío Ruiz-Pérez ◽

María Desirée Alba-Rodríguez ◽

Cristina Rivero-Camacho ◽

Jaime Solís-Guzmán ◽

Madelyn Marrero

Keyword(s):

Public Procurement ◽

Embodied Energy ◽

Short Term ◽

Sewer System ◽

Communication Services ◽

Concrete Aggregates ◽

The Public ◽

Basic Services ◽

Total Impact

Urbanization projects, understood as those supplying basic services for cities, such as drinking water, sewers, communication services, power, and lighting, are normally short-term extremely scattered actions, and it can be difficult to track their environmental impact. The present article’s main contribution is to employ the project budgets of public urbanization work to provide an instrument for environmental improvement, thereby helping public procurement, including sustainability criteria. Two urban projects in Seville, Spain are studied: the first substitutes existing services, and the second also includes gardens and playgrounds in the street margins. The methodology finds the construction elements that must be controlled in each project from the perspective of three indicators: carbon, water footprints, and embodied energy. The main impacts found are due to only four construction units: concrete, aggregates, asphalt, and ceramic pipes for the sewer system, that represent 70% or more of the total impact in all indicators studied. The public developer can focus procurement on those few elements in order to exert a lower impact and to significantly reduce the environmental burden of urbanization projects.

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An ecodesign method application at the experimental stage of construction materials development: A case study in the production of mortar made with ornamental rock wastes

Construction and Building Materials ◽

10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123505 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 293 ◽

pp. 123505

Author(s):

Florence Rezende Leite ◽

Maria Lúcia Pereira Antunes ◽

Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva ◽

Elidiane Cipriano Rangel ◽

Nilson Cristino da Cruz

Keyword(s):

Construction Materials ◽

Materials Development ◽

Experimental Stage

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Carbon footprint and embodied energy of a wind turbine blade—a case study

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment ◽

10.1007/s11367-021-01907-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Antonio Augusto Morini ◽

Manuel J. Ribeiro ◽

Dachamir Hotza

Keyword(s):

Wind Turbine ◽

Turbine Blade ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Wind Turbine Blade ◽

Embodied Energy

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Effects of Infills in the Seismic Performance of an RC Factory Building in Pakistan

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings11070276 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 276

Author(s):

Nisar Ali Khan ◽

Giorgio Monti ◽

Camillo Nuti ◽

Marco Vailati

Keyword(s):

Numerical Model ◽

Construction Materials ◽

Building Codes ◽

Construction Technique ◽

Infill Walls ◽

Mortar Strength ◽

Materials Used ◽

Seismic Response Of Buildings

Infilled reinforced concrete (IRC) frames are a very common construction typology, not only in developing countries such as Pakistan but also in southern Europe and Western countries, due to their ease of construction and less technical skills required for the construction. Their performance during past earthquakes has been in some cases satisfactory and in other cases inadequate. Significant effort has been made among researchers to improve such performance, but few have highlighted the influence of construction materials used in the infill walls. In some building codes, infills are still considered as non-structural elements, both in the design of new buildings and, sometimes, in the assessment of existing buildings. This is mainly due to some difficulties in modeling their mechanical behavior and also the large variety of typologies, which are difficult to categorize. Some building codes, for example, Eurocode, already address the influence of infill walls in design, but there is still a lack of homogeneity among different codes. For example, the Pakistan building code (PBC) does not address infills, despite being a common construction technique in the country. Past earthquake survey records show that construction materials and infill types significantly affect the seismic response of buildings, thus highlighting the importance of investigating such parameters. This is the object of this work, where a numerical model for infill walls is introduced, which aims at predicting their failure mode, as a function of some essential parameters, such as the friction coefficient between mortar and brick surface and mortar strength, usually disregarded in previous models. A comprehensive case study is presented of a three-story IRC frame located in the city of Mirpur, Pakistan, hit by an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 on 24 September 2019. The results obtained from the numerical model show good agreement with the damage patterns observed in situ, thus highlighting the importance of correctly modeling the infill walls when seismically designing or assessing Pakistani buildings that make use of this technology.

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