ENERGY IN BUILDING MATERIALS

The term Embodied Energy or Embodied Carbon refers to the sum impact of all

greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a material during its life cycle. This cycle
encompasses extraction, manufacturing, construction, maintenance, and disposal. For
example, reinforced concrete is a material with extremely high embodied energy. When
manufacturing the cement, large amounts of CO2 are released in the calcination stage, where
limestone is transformed into calcium oxide (quicklime), as well as in the burning of fossil
fuels in furnaces. If we add these issues to the exploitation of sand and stone, to the use of
iron for the rebar, to its transport to the construction site to be added to the mix, we can
understand the impact of each decision of a project on the environment. Other construction
materials, such as ceramic, brick, and plastic, similarly require large amounts of energy to be
manufactured since the minerals used in them must be extracted and treated in energy-
intensive processes.

It's important to keep in mind that there are two types of carbon emissions in relation
to buildings: Embodied Carbon and Operational Carbon. The latter refers to all the carbon
dioxide emitted during the life of an entire building, rather than just its materials,
encompassing electricity consumption, heating, cooling, and more.
 Understanding the amount of energy or carbon incorporated in building's materials is
essential to creating more eco-conscious projects. A 'sustainable material' in one place may
have a high energy load in another due to local availability and the type of transport involved.

A standardized method of quantifying the environmental impact of buildings, from the

extraction of materials and the manufacture of products to the end of their useful life and
disposal, is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Using a quantitative methodology, numerical
results are obtained that reflect the impact categories and provide comparisons between
similar products. To a similar end, the University of Bath (UK), has compiled a list
comparing the energy content of the most commonly used materials around the world.

There are also other tools and technologies that promise to facilitate the process. Autodesk,
together with the Carbon Leadership Forum and in collaboration with other construction and
software companies, has developed the Embedded Carbon in Construction Calculator
(EC3) tool, which is available to all beta users. The idea is to provide users with the
information they need to make more informed decisions about the embodied carbon of each
element of a building, promoting intelligent, conscious, and accessible solutions even for
those who are not specialists. As always, awareness in making decisions and being conscious
of the options available are always the best way to make processes more intelligent and
sustainable.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES CONCERNED TO BUILDING

MATERIALS

Buildings are large entities and, as such, they impact upon the environment in various
ways. Present-day designs clearly consume large quantities of physical resources such as
materials, energy and money in their construction, maintenance and use; but they also can
result in effects such as loss of amenity and biodiversity which are much more difficult to
assess.

If we are going to build in ecologically-sustainable manner, or even substantially

reduce the environmental impacts of current building approaches and practices, it will be
necessary to consider the impact of a building over its full life-cycle, sometimes described as
a 'cradle-to-grave' analysis. ('Cradle-to-reincarnation' may be more appropriate, as it more
clearly raises the issues of re-use and recycling of materials.)

The life-cycle of a building material can be considered to have five stages:

- mining/extraction/harvesting

- manufacture

- construction

- use

- demolition

For most building materials, the major environmental impacts occur during the first
two stages but as waste-disposal problems increase, we are also being made increasingly
aware of the impacts associated with the demolition stage. It is apparent that the energy used
to produce the building material (its embodied energy) is only an approximate indicator of its
environmental impact.

As always, designers, builders and building owners have to seek a balance between
often conflicting considerations, appearance, comfort, ease of construction, maintenance
costs, capital costs etc. Now, environmental impact is an added variable. However, it has
been shown that if environmental considerations are included early in the design process, it is
possible to incorporate them without incurring additional costs.
 The twentieth century has been one of incredible technological and social change, yet
as a general rule, the theme current in the Modern movement in architecture at the beginning
of this century remains valid today, albeit for different reasons.