Low Embodied Energy Materials in Sustainable Design by Lazar Petrov

Low embodied energy materials in sustainable design
Bachelor of Architectural Technology and Construction Management 7th Semester dissertation Written by: Lazar Petrov Petrov (123953)
Via University College 28th of November 2011
Title Page:
TITLE of Elective Subject report. Trip to China October 2010
AUTHOR(S) Study number(s) CONSULTANT
Lazar Petrov Petrov (123953) Jesper Saxgren
DATE HANDED-IN Number of COPIES Number of PAGES
28.11.2011
24
SIGNATURE(S) of AUTHOR(S)
All rights reserved Font Verdana, size 12 No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the author(s).
NOTE: This dissertation was compiled as part of the 7th Semester Architectural Technology and Construction Management degree course. No responsibility is taken for any advice, instruction or conclusion given within.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Jesper Saxgren for his guidance during the process of writing and the advices he gave me.
Abstract
This dissertations topic is Low embodied energy materials in sustainable design. The goal of the dissertation is to give an overall idea of what low embodied energy is and define several low embodied energy materials. As the resources of raw energy and building materials are running low, we have to find new solutions to the problem. The reduction of the building industrys energy consumption is of great importance and low embodied energy is the key to a great success in solving that issue. The dissertation describes methods of estimating low embodied energy, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It also provides information on the usage of low embodied energy materials and life cycle assessments as helpful tools in decreasing the negative impact on local and global eco systems, by lowering the emissions of CO2. The dissertation also includes a comparison between building materials with low embodied energy, as a result of which the material with the lowest embodied energy is timber. It also reflects on the great significance in the differentiation between renewable and nonrenewable resources and their importance to the environment. Key words: embodied energy, embodied energy materials, energy consumption, life cycle assessment, nonrenewable resources, raw materials
Contents:
1. Introduction ................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background information ...................................................................... 1 1.2 Relevance for the chosen topic ............................................................ 1 1.3 Problem statement and research questions: .......................................... 2 1.4 Delimitation ...................................................................................... 2 1.5 Methodology...................................................................................... 2
2. The global problem of vanishing raw materials.................................. 3 3.What is low embodied energy? ........................................................ 4 4.How do we calculate the embodied energy of a certain material? ......... 7 5.How would it help to lower the energy consumption in the building industry? ......................................................................................... 8 6.How can we use a Life-cycle assessment as a tool to define low embodied energy materials? ............................................................ 13 7.What can we define as low embodied energy materials? ................... 18
7.1 Low embodied energy materials ......................................................... 18 7.2Stones in comparison with other low embodied energy materials ............ 19
8.Conclusion .................................................................................. 27 List of figures List of references
List of figures:
Figure 1. Initial embodied energy into an office building .................................. 6 Figure 2. Embodied energy statistics of concrete ............................................ 7 Figure 3. The global usage of energy resources .............................................. 8 Figure 4. Illustrating positioning of recycling factories ..................................... 9 Figure 5. Illustrating the usage of non-renewable energy resources for transportation of raw materials in Norway ................................................... 11 Figure 6. Showing the main flow of the LCA. ................................................ 14 Figure 7. Illustrating the flow of materials to produce a concrete element........ 15 Figure 8. Illustrating examples of the usage of stone in buildings in the past and an example of the life span of limestone constructions. ................................. 20 Figure 9. Embodied energy comparison ....................................................... 23 Figure 10. Weight of materials per cubic meter ............................................ 24 Figure 11. Plan of a small building used as an example for wall construction comparison.............................................................................................. 27 Figure 12. Showing the results of mindless cutting of forests and replanting of forests .................................................................................................... 26
1. Introduction
1.1 Background information
This dissertation was written as a part of the final semester of the education as Bachelor of Architectural Technology and Construction Management. The dissertation briefly explains about low embodied energy and its usage in sustainable design. It provides information on materials with low embodied energy and it presents methods of defining them. The dissertation gives an overview of how low embodied energy can help in the decrease of the building industrys energy consumption. In addition the dissertation gives information on the main idea of an Life cycle assessment and how it could be used as a tool to define low embodied energy and low embodied energy materials. It also includes a comparison between different low embodied energy materials and their impact on the environment.
1.2 Relevance for the chosen topic

In the modern world, architecture has a greater focus on preserving the environment and its resources. Knowing that most of the nonrenewable energy sources are running out makes us think of new solutions and ways to lower the energy and raw material consumptions. The most common thing that architects and engineers are trying to improve is the energy consumption of the building after it is built. The energy consumed in the process of building a house takes huge amounts of recourses therefore through a Life Cycle Assessment we can find a solution to our problem and the most suitable materials for a certain building. Preserving the environment could be done in many ways and in my belief low embodied energy materials are a great solution to the global problem. The amounts of energy used to produce new materials, to transport them and put them on the site, could rapidly be reduced. A reduction of CO2 ignitions could be reached as well.
VIA University College, Horsens, Denmark, November 2011
Through an online research and thorough investigation of the problem I hope to give the reader a good overview of the usage of low embodied energy materials and its future. The research would be a great help for me in my future career as a constructing architect.
1.3 Problem statement and research questions:

What is the impact of the building industry on the environment? How can low embodied energy help solving the building industrys issues in concern of energy consumption and the extinction of raw and nonrenewable building and energy resources? Research questions: 1. What is embodied energy? 2. What would help to lower the energy consumption in the building industry? 3. How can we use a Life-cycle assessment as a tool to define low embodied energy materials? 4. What can we define as low embodied energy materials? 5. What makes low embodied energy materials better than regular materials?
1.4 Delimitation
This dissertation provides information on low embodied energy and methods of estimating and assessing low embodied energy materials in the building industry. It doesnt provide exact formulas on the calculation of embodied energy and it couldnt be used as a basis of such calculations.
1.5 Methodology
Both empirical quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used to analyze facts and data on low embodied energy. All the data in the report is secondary, provided by books and articles, or information found on the internet. Some of the information found in the dissertation is based on my own personal logical explanation.
2. The global problem of vanishing raw materials

Nowadays investigations show very pessimistic results. Scientists state that the earths resources on certain building materials and raw materials are running low. One of the most important and world-moving energy resources is oil. It is well known that the resources of oil are running low and we should be very careful in how we as responsible human beings use the vanishing material. Many people think that oil is not a big part of the building sector. On the contrary ,scientists have proven that huge amounts of oil has been used in the construction sphere for different purposes, for example producing prefabricated elements or using heavy machinery, transportation, erection on site and etc. Therefore, in order to preserve the raw material resources not only of oil but other building materials as well, we have to think of new and more durable solutions to the given problem. One way of decreasing the consumption of raw materials is by thorough planning of the building process on site. A research in Scandinavia proves that 10 percent of the total waste in the building industry is actually produced on site. Therefore, by planning the process of the building we can make sure that all the products come in the right cut and will fit fast and easy to the building without the need to use extra machinery or materials, which will prevent the waste of building materials and oil. Another way of decreasing the raw material consumption is by prolonging the lifespan of the materials used. Of course a product that will last 60 years will harm the environment twice as less if we compare it to a product that will last only 30 years. Why? Simply because, the product with a longer lifespan will need only maintenance in a period of 60 years, where on the other hand the less lasting product will have to be renewed which leads to the usage of new raw materials and energy resources, or energy used to recycle or renew the existing ones. However the life span of a material can be defined from different factors: 1. 2. 3. 4. The physical and chemical structure of the material itself Construction and execution The local environment and climatic conditions Maintenance and management of the building material
The best way of finding the life span of a material is through a research of the material in a real life situation with specific local climate properties, which takes a lot of time meaning that we are investigating or looking for a material with a long life span. A third solution to the problem would be recycling the already created materials. A great improvement in harming the environment can be reached by recycling material rather than creating new once. The pollution levels are drastically lowered by prolonging the life span of an existing material. Therefore, such recyclable products have a big advantage when we get to compare them to the green labeled products that dont allow recycling. The recycling possibilities depend on the company executing the demolition process of a building. A research shows that the smaller complicity levels that the material has the easier it is to recycle it. Recycling can however be separated in three different spheres: 1. Re-use 2. Recycling 3. Energy recovery In order to make the materials suitable for re-use they have to be simplified or standardized. For example Germany has a rich market on variable materials reaching up to 300 000 products, both different in design and composition, which would not be compatible if reused. All the above stated factors would be vital in defining whether a material has low embodied energy or not. 3. What is low embodied energy? Embodied energy is hard to be defined by simply one sentence. The formula of how to calculate it could vary as well. However The University of Bath and in particular Sustainable Energy Research Team (SERT) has done a research where they calculate the Embodied Energy and Embodied Carbon of specific construction materials. While doing a research on low embodied energy, one should not consider only the energy used but also the amounts of CO2 released. It is extremely important to consider the Carbon emissions, because they are a great factor that harms the environment. They define the term Embodied Energy as:
The total primary energy consumed during the life time of a product, ideally the boundaries would be set from the extraction of raw materials (inc fuels) to the end of the products lifetime (including energy from; manufacturing, transport, energy to manufacture capital equipment, heating & lighting of factory...etc), this boundary condition is known as Cradle to Grave. It has become common practice to specify the embodied energy as Cradle to Gate, which includes all energy (in primary form) until the product leaves the factory gate. The final boundary condition is Cradle to Site, which includes all energy consumed until the product has reached the point of use (i.e. building site). www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/sert/embodied/ October 2011 Embodied energy has been researched for decades and its main goal is to define the connection between construction materials, the process of building and after coming impact on the environment. The embodied energy itself can be separated in two different categories: 1. Initial embodied energy 2. Recurring embodied energy Where the Initial embodied energy represents the energy used in extracting raw materials, their manufacturing and their processing. On the other hand a big part of the initial embodied energy is consumed due to transportation to site and constructing the building. Therefore, the Initial embodied energy could be divided in two sub chapters, which would be Direct and Indirect energy. The direct energy is used for transportation and etc. and the indirect energy is used to acquire, process and manufacture the building materials. Where the indirect energy includes the one used for transportation related to the listed activities. The Recurring embodied energy is actually the energy used during the life cycle of the building, used to maintain repair and restore or replace materials. A building becomes more energy-efficient, when the embodied energy of the building is decreasing due to the long lifespan. There are buildings that claim to be zero energy but still havent considered the energy used on the construction process itself and the maintenance after words. That is a very common mistake in the building industry to define a building with and energy class zero or passive when the amounts of energy used for the production is of great significance. Architects have thought for decades that since the building is designed so that the tenants would use small or no amounts of energy to heat, light or ventilate the building, it could be defined as a zero energy building.
The main construction structures for housing and office buildings would be designed from wood, steel or concrete. A research done by Raymond J. Cole and Paul C. Kernan compares three different constructions in one and the same building made exactly of the above stated materials forming the envelope, structure and services of the building. The results show that the biggest part of the buildings initial (non-renewable) embodied energy is taken from the main structure of the building and it takes up to 74% of the total initial embodied energy, which has an average 4.82 GJ/m2. The finishes of the construction represent only 13% percent of the Total Initial embodied energy and are considered to have the highest increase in recovering embodied energy. An interesting relationship is revealed by the research of recurring embodied energy. Firstly the structures of the building does not recur embodied energy, but after 25 years the building recurs 57 per cent of the initial embodied energy and by the 100th year of the buildings existence the recurred embodied energy reaches up to 325 per cent, which comes to prove that the life span of a building plays a significant role in defining the energy efficiency of a building. The longer the building lives, the more valuable is the initial (non-renewable) embodied energy. This relationship could also be defined as differential durability. Differential durability is a term used to describe how the useful service life of building components, such as structure, envelope, finishes and services, differs - both between components, and within the materials, assemblies and systems comprising the components. 10th Canadian Conference on Building Science and Technology Ottawa, May 2005 This chart shows only the results from Cradle to site without including the maintanence and renovation of the building in the future, which is a big part of the embodied energy of a building knowing that nowadays constructions have a very long life span. The longer the building lives, the lower the embodied energy of the buidling is.
Figure1 Initial embodied energy into an office building
4. How do we calculate the embodied energy of a certain material? The university of Bath in the United Kingdom has done a research on the most common and vital materials for a building. The only problem is that they have done the calcucalations only from cradle to gate, which means that if we want to have a complete embodied energy analysis of a material we have to finish the rest on our own. Of course the calculation is not done further, because in different cases different methods of constructing will be used and the amounts of embodied energy will be different. If we want to finish the calculation we have to have in mind the total amount of embodied energy used from the Gate to the Site and afterwords from the Site to the Grave. The method that has been used to deffine the embodied energy of the materials is as follows; the energy used for producing a kilogram of a certain material is calculated in MJ/kg ,the CO2 emisions are calculated and measured in tCO2(tones of carbon dioxide per kg of product), afterwards the tCO2 has to be converted to MJ (1 kgCO2 = 10.204 MJ). It is not very usefull if we convert the MJ to CO2 simply because different types of energy sources produce different amouts of emisions. For example the calculation of the embodied energy of concrete as a material can be a very complex process with a lot of variables and no certain value of Embodied Energy per kilo can be defined. There are too many various types of concrete and some of them are being analyzed in the following chart.
Figure 2. Embodied energy statistics of Concrete; Inventory of carbon and energy version 2.0 2011 In this table (Table. 1) the authors have described the average of 124 records of concrete analysis which gives us a total number of 2.92 MJ/kg., however the difference between the minimum and the maximum values is devastating - going from 0.07 MJ/kg up to 92.50 MJ/kg. This is only to prove that there are forms of the certain material that are a great
VIA University College, Horsens, Denmark, November 2011 7
harm of the environment and in my personal opinion would not be considered sustainable. As the table shows there is a significant diference between pre-casted and in situ-casted concrete. The maximum EE(Embodied Energy) of precasted concred reaches 3.80 MJ/kg when the concrete in general can reach up to 92.5 MJ/kg. That comes only to prove that the usage of prefabricated concrete elements for the construction of a building would be a much more sustainable solution in terms of embodied energy and carbon emissions than in situ-casted concrete. But when it comes to a more detailed investigation or a comparison between a Precast RC 40/50 MPa with general concrete with strength of 40/50Mpa. The results show that the EE of the pre-casted concrete is bigger than the regular concrete and that would be normal knowing that it consumes more energy to be produced. However if the precast and general concrete are delivered to the one and the same site and from one and the same factory, than it would be most logical to use prefabricated concrete elements in order to lower the EE of the building. The embodied energy analysis allows us to compare different materials not only the derivatives of a certain raw material. 5. How would it help to lower the energy consumption in the building industry? As the world is moving really fast into developing new technologies
Figure 3. The global usage of energy resources (www.wikipedia.org) Oct. 2011
and building up the surface of the earth so rapidly the resources are running low. The most common problem of the world and the most recently discussed topic is how to save energy. There are many researches done on providing new sources of energy such as wind, water or solar power. The temperature of the earth is used as a source of heating up buildings and etc., but there are different methods that could be used in the search of lowering the energy consumption. If we lower the energy consumption for domestic purposes it would be only a small part of the worlds in total. Therefore, we have to think globally. We have to think of new solutions to lower the energy consumption in the industry zone. Most of the electricity is produced from non-renewable resources such as oil, coal and nuclear power and they have a low efficiency degree from 0.25 to 0.30 (25% to 30%) the rest of the energy is lost. On the other hand electricity produced due to the power of water has an efficiency coefficient of 0.6 which is not very impressive but still is better than the stated above. It is best to avoid the usage of raw materials to produce energy a better solution would be to produce energy is rotary power (wind and water). Low embodied energy analysis would be a great solution to the world known problem and the construction sector. A big part of the energy consumption can be reduced by planning and predicting the process of constructing a building and all the activities in connection with that. For example a research on where would it be most appropriate to get the materials for the construction can lead us to lowering the embodied energy of the building in means of transportation. It would be even better if we manage to establish factories for manufacturing of raw materials close to the resource location and still not too far from the city or the area where the specific construction or building is build. In the United Kingdom scientist state that most of the prefabricated concrete elements have to travel an average of 150 km to reach their destination. Another efficient way to drastically lower the energy consumption is by using raw materials located on the site instead of using manufactured materials from a
Figure 4.Illustrating positioning of recycling factories
factory located away from the area of building. For example a great choice of material will be using stones found on the site while digging the foundation of a building and manufacture them on site by hand or by the usage of very low-consuming energy equipment. Canadian scientists calculated that the embodied energy of stones is 0.79 MJ/kg, which is almost three times less the embodied energy of bricks (2.5MJ/kg), which leads to the conclusion that stones could be a great material to be used instead of bricks for example. But if we get to compare oven burned bricks to sun burned bricks the once that are made into a factory may contain a higher embodied energy but still have a smaller embodied energy in a life span of 150 years (as it is stated that nowadays bricks can last for that long).Furthermore a raw material as stones could be used as reinforcement while laying the foundation of a building. The great amounts of construction waste in the world are reaching a disturbing level and many manufacturers are starting to use the waste into producing new materials that could be as efficient as the once manufactured from raw materials. This process could be defined as recycling materials and it allows us to lower the energy consumption in the construction industry drastically. In China, more specifically Beijing 40 million tones of construction waste are thrown away every year. Most of the waste is piled up or covered under domestic waste. The construction waste is not that toxic and harmful to the environment, but if all those tones of waste are instead recycled or reused this would be a great help of the environment and planet earth. Most of the constructions in China are made out of concrete or bricks and they could be A big part of the waste is also reinforcement used in concrete and is extremely easy to recycle or reuse into new buildings. In this way we could save energy and lower the embodied energy of a lot of buildings and also prolong the life span of raw material resources. A great example of recycling materials is the recycling of bricks. Scientists say that seven recycled bricks are equal to 1 liter of oil. Metals such as steel have a rather high embodied energy, but if recycled we can save from 40 up to 90 per cent of the energy used for extracting ore. Recycling also has its disadvantages, it has to be done in a local facility or in other words a factory close to the demolished building, if the construction waste has to be transported to distanced location the consumption of energy for oil changes everything (see Picture 1.). The more we ignore the problem the harder it becomes to save the environment. The more we use non-renewable resources and increase the energy consumption the harder the future will be. If we lower the energy
consumption by using materials with lower embodied energy we could save the non-renewable resources or at least use them as less as possible and then use them on more important occasions or in more drastic needs. The primary consumption of energy in producing materials is actually the energy needed to manufacture the building product. When calculating the primary energy consumption the most important factor is the combustion value, which is the amount of energy produced by the certain material if burned as fuel and it is mainly included in the primary consumption energy calculation if the product is highly valuable as an energy source. If we dont include the combustion value this can lead to wrong results. The primary energy consumption is around 80% of the total energy input in a material and is separated as it follows: The energy used in the extraction of raw materials and the production process are defined as the direct energy consumption. Of course this depends on the type of machinery used during the process of extraction and the machinerys energy consumption. During the process of manufacturing the energy consumed is called secondary energy consumption, which refers to the energy used for heating, ventilating or maintenance of the given factory. Last but not least is the energy consumed for transportation
The following table shows how much and what type of energy is used in Norway for the transportation of one tone of raw materials per year. Type of transport MJ/ton/km
Diesel: road transport 1,6 Diesel: sea transport 0,6 Diesel: rail transport 0,6 Electric: rail transport 0,2 Figure 5. Illustrating the usage of non-renewable energy resources for transportation of raw materials in Norway The energy consumption during building, use and demolition is also a big part of the total energy consumption of the construction process. The transportation of manufactured products to the building site is about 20 per cent of the total amount of energy used for the building process. Transportation of heavy materials should be done on local basis. A bad example of energy consumption is the transportation of lightweight concrete elements from Norway to
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Korea which uses almost three times more energy/m3 than the production of the product itself. The energy consumption used for the building process on site has increased in comparison with the past. In search of a faster way to build and due to mechanization of some process the energy consumption has increased drastically. For example in the past construction processes were about to start during spring so the main structure of the building would dry out and the construction process can continue. Nowadays most of the in-situ casted concrete is dried thanks to machines such as industrial fans or heaters. An important factor is also the choice of material for the main construction if we have to compare a concrete wall (in-situ) and a wooden wall (insitu), then of course the wooden wall will need less time and energy to dry. The energy consumption during maintenance strictly depends on the materials used into the construction, they should either be renovated or replaced. Renovation would be found in processes such as repainting or impregnating finishes of the faade or simply just removing the old covering and replacing it with a new one (which is more time and energy consuming but still an acceptable solution). Last but not least the demolition process and the energy consumed in it. Statistics show that this is almost 10 per cent of the construction total energy consumption, but it depends on the materials used.
So now that we know the major energy consuming processes in the life span of a material we know the areas where we should focus to lower the energy consumption. If that analysis is done for every major material used into a construction and we estimate the embodied energy of not only the materials but the whole building, we would be able to save the environment and hopefully prevent the extinction of certain raw energy material resources such as oil for instance, knowing that the source of power in the transportation and construction of buildings is petrol. If we take transportation for example an average truck loaded with materials will be consuming an average of 30 to 35 liters of diesel fuel per 100 km (0.35l/km, 1l=38.6 MJ => 110.4MJ/km).
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6. How can we use a Life-cycle assessment as a tool to define low embodied energy materials?
6.1What is a Life-cycle assessment (LCA).
A life-cycle assessment is defined as (LCA, also known as lifecycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis) a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from-cradle-to-grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling). /www.wikipedia.org October 2011/ The main idea of a LCA will be to compare the environmental effects of products and services in order to improve different processes and in the same time provide a solid basis for sustainable decisions. The term life cycle refers to the process of extracting, manufacturing, transporting and establishing steps needed for the product to exist. LCA is a complex assessment and it can be used in various occasions, for example the production of a simple product and its environmental impact and the construction of a new power plant. In the early years of its existence LCA has been used only to define the environmental impact of small products, but since we could use it to define the sub-products of a major product with a much higher importance, we could use it for bigger projects. The small products are defined as conventional and the major once as unconventional. Therefore we have two different types of LCAs: Attributional and Consequential. The Attributional LCA is to describe the environmental affect on or from a product or process, while the Consequential LCA is to determine future changes in the environment if we make certain decisions. Basically the ALCA is based on facts and already absorbed knowledge and on the other side the CLCA is to predict future changes based on guesses and experiments. Usually the difference between the two LCAs can be found or stated in the Goal and scope part of the given process. All Life-Cycle assessments are under the supervision of ISO and a part of the ISO 14000 environmental management standards. Every LCA is structured in four different phases:
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Goal and scope Life Cycle inventory Life cycle impact assessment Interpretation
Figure 6. showing the main flow of the LCA
The Goal and scope phase of the study is basically the beginning of the LCA, where one should state in what method and to whom the results should be given. According to the ISO standards the goal and scope of the assessment have to be distinctly described and consistent with the intended application. The Goal and scope document is used as a guide to give us the readers further information on the following: The function unit, giving us a definition of the studied subject in a precise manner and provides us with information about the quantities the system produces, providing a reference to which the inputs and outputs can be related. For example the usage of energy in the manufacturing of a concrete element. The boundaries of the system. For example finishing the process of a life cycle assessment of a concrete element will be done from cradle to gate, knowing that the destination of the element is unknown. Assumptions and limitations. The allocation methods used to separate the environmental load of a process when different products and functions are used in the same process. The impact categories chosen. For example the energy consumption or the CO2 emissions. The second part of the life cycle assessment is the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and its main function is creating an inventory flow of products from and to nature for a certain product system. The flows usually include inputs of water, energy, raw materials and outputs to air, land and water. For further development of the inventory we could construct a model of the flow of the system and incorporate the inputs
and outputs. The easiest way to depict the flow is by creating a chart describing the steps taken in the product system. The chart gives us the exact way the product system will work, step by step, and can set out the boundaries of the system and the LCA. The data (input and output) for the flow model is collected for all the steps to be taken. For more precise model data could be collected from the supply chain (e.g. the company supplying with raw materials for the production of concrete elements, their energy consumption and other material consumptions). The data used in the inventory flow must be related to the unit defined in
Figure 7. Illustrating the flow of materials to produce a concrete element www.google.com November 2011
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the Goal and scope section of the LCA. The LCI provides information about all the inputs and outputs in the form of elementary flow and the effect of those flows to the environment. The number of those flows depends on the product systems complicity and its boundaries. In case of lack of data, questionnaires can be sent to competent organs, such as other producers of the same product or producers of the sub-materials needed to manufacture a certain product. Chart 3 illustrates the flow of the production of concrete elements and provides us information of the main components (steel, lumber, cement and aggregate suppliers) used in the process. It also shows us the steps taken in the process. So by having this data we can start the life cycle assessment of the process and get the total amount of embodied energy needed to produce one element. The producers of raw materials could provide us with the information on the embodied energy of their products and the energy used to transport them to the factory where the elements are produced. The next steps would be the calculation of the amount of energy used for every single activity in the process. This way the process of calculating the embodied energy of a concrete element could be done from cradle to gate Life cycle impact assessment follows the inventory analysis. This past of the LCA is where we evaluate the potential environmental impact of the process and products based on the flow model. The main elements in the life cycle impact assessment are: The categories of impact have to be selected, as well as the category indicators and the characterization models. The classification stage, where the inventory parameters are sorted and assigned to specific impact categories. The impact measurement, where we characterize the categorized life cycle impact flows, using one of many different possibilities of life cycle impact assessment. All the assessments have to be done in equivalent units so that they can be added together in the end to get the total overall impact. The life cycle interpretation is where we systematically identify, quantify, check and evaluate the information from the results of the life cycle inventory and/or impact assessment. Here we also summarize the results of the previous phases. The basic idea of the interpretation is to provide conclusions and recommendations for the given study. The interpretation should include:
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Identification of significant issues based on the results of the previous phases of the life cycle assessment. The completeness, sensitivity and consistency checks are being controlled and evaluated. Conclusions, limitations and recommendations are given The interpretation determines the level of confidence in the final results and connects them in a fair and accurate manner. The results of the life cycle assessment are not very simple so the choices of solutions to the problem can be more than one. The final choice is made according to the Goal and scope of the life cycle assessment, as we make sure the results of the LCA meet the goals set in the beginning. In a world where we are looking for sustainable solutions to prevent harming the environment the LCA could be used as a great tool to define the best choices of materials, constructions and even ways of building. The process Cradle to cradle or Open loop Production is going to help improve buildings and if followed will allow us to reach a smaller human impact on the environment. If we use a life cycle assessment to assume the energy consumed for the process of building and finding the best ways of constructing, give the building a lower embodied energy and follow the regulations in sizing materials (so that they are easily recyclable) we would significantly help the environment. The life cycle assessment can give us great results on the embodied energy of different materials and even better it can provides with information on how those materials actually harm the environment. Due to some life cycle energy analysis new ways of energy recovery has been established. The disposal of materials can be used as an energy resource, where the waste is being burned and used for electricity production. That is of course done in special facilities that are equipped with filtering systems so that they lower the emissions and prevent harming the environment. That is great form of recovering energy and on the other hand we can stop waste land-filling (collecting garbage in open garbage depots) and greatly reduce the energy consumption and green house gas emissions. Critics disagree with the fact that LCA is replacing cost analysis with energy efficiency analysis. But in such an advanced world, knowing all the problems we have with the environment such as the global warming, we should focus mainly on the impact of humanity on the environment and less on the money we spend. LCA can also lead us to preserving the low amounts of raw nonrenewable energy resources left.
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The life cycle assessment is a tool that can help us determine the difference between, for example certain wall constructions in a certain area, and lead us to the best choice of materials in long life span. 7. What can we define as low embodied energy materials?
7.1 Low embodied energy materials

There are many factors that need to be considered when we are defining low embodied energy materials. Mainly in consideration is taken the energy used to produce the certain material, the energy used to deliver it and build with it on site and the energy used to maintain it after words. In the past many of the products used into a construction were found and manufactured on site. Such materials as stone, timber and mud have been the most common to be used in building structure. Nowadays these materials are to be replaced by concrete, steel and bricks. The newly developed techniques of building, consume greater amounts of energy due to the usage of heavy machinery. In the past most of the construction materials were manufactured by hand or used in a raw form, which means no energy was used to build a house. A material with low embodied energy can be defined by the following factors: How far the materials have to travel (local materials are better) The amount of raw materials used. How difficult it is to actually manufacture the product (the more complex the process is the more energy is being used) The size of the building should be connected with the needs it has to fulfill the waste of space leads to higher usage of energy due to extra materials needed. How much waste do you have during production and if the waste could be reused Recycling possibilities of the given material The usage of renewable resources is desirable (if possible) Efficiently design the building so the use of energy and materials is lowered The most common types of low embodied energy building materials are:
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Mud bricks Stabilized earth Air dried timber Concrete blocks Precast concrete Recycled materials that dont require the usage of raw materials as they are already manufactured once
7.2 Stones in comparison with other low embodied energy materials

To the above stated materials we could include stones. Stones have been compared in a metaphorical way with the bone structure of our planet and scientists give them three different categories: Igneous stones. These are rocks that we can find on the surface or not deep below the surface of the earth. They are considered to be the hardest stones such as granites, syenites and dolerites. Sedimentary stones. They are composed of grains and are combined with organic materials such as corals for instance. In this group we can find sandstone, slate and limestone. Limestone is one of the most popular in the ancient times and has been used construct many historical buildings such as the pyramids and the Greek Pantheon. Metamorphic stones. Formed by exertion of pressure and the action of high temperatures former igneous or sedimentary rock types are being transformed into another structure. Examples of these rocktypes are crystalline, slate and quartzite. According to Asher Shadmon of the HABITAD center in Naibori: Stone is the building material of the future. We are on our way into a new stone age. The resources are limitless and evenly spread over the whole globe. Extraction does not require a lot of energy and does not pollute. And most important of all is that the material is durable (1983) The ecology of building materials Stone has been used into buildings since the Stone Age and, through the Middle Ages until nowadays. In the past stones were used to construct all of the building structure: foundation, walls and roof as well. But stones physical properties dont allow it to span in long distances
because of its low tensile capacity. On the other hand stones can be used in high buildings, knowing that it has great compressive capacity therefore is a perfect material for load bearing walls. In the Middle Ages stones has been used in the foundation and ground floor walls of the house and the rest was made of bricks. Stone walls have a special characteristic of preserving and protecting from heat. A thick stone wall, thanks to the density of the material, can keep the building cool during the summer and worm during the winter, as the wall construction slowly heats up and slowly cools down.
Figure 8. Illustrating examples of the usage of stone in buildings in the past and an example of the life span of limestone constructions. Nowadays crushed stones are used in the reinforcement of concrete, for the production of tiles and slabs, but no longer for the construction of walls and etc. The U-value of Limestone is 1.70 W/m2K which is only 0.11 over the U-value of high density concrete. That means that it could be used into modern-time constructions as a substitute of concrete and since it takes less energy to produce stone blocks and it could be put by hand on the building site, that directly means that stone could be considered as a material with a lower embodied energy than concrete. The density of stone gives it Stone blocks could also be compared to bricks according to their function. Clay bricks go through a long process of manufacturing from raw clay until we get to the product or the result that we are looking for. The clay has to be extracted from the ground and that process is using great amounts of energy, after words it has to be formed in the shape of the brick also due to the help of machinery that uses energy and later on it has to be burned and that means additional energy. Last but not least comes the energy used to transporting the bricks to the site knowing that they cant be produced on the site. On the other hand we have stone
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blocks that are extracted and shaped. If being lucky we could find suitable stone resources on the building site while digging the foundation or etc. Another low embodied energy material is the mud brick. The soft mud method is the most common, as it is the most economical. It starts with the raw clay, preferably in a mix with 25-30% sand to reduce shrinkage. The clay is first ground and mixed with water to the desired consistency. The clay is then pressed into steel moulds with a hydraulic press. The shaped clay is then fired ("burned") at 900-1000 C to achieve strength www.wikipedia.org November 2011 However a common method of producing mud bricks is to naturally burn them using only the sun, that method is of course only suitable for countries where the climate allows that process to succeed. Mud bricks have a lower embodied energy than the fabricated bricks simply because they are not being burned, but they have a much shorter life span, therefore mud brick constructions need to be renewed more often and that leads to additional usage of energy. Stone blocks on the other side have e very long life span if we consider structures made of stone in the ancient times that are still standing. While bricks and concrete significantly pollute the environment in the process of manufacturing, stone blocks dont need to be exposed to high temperature therefore in the process no gasses are released that can harm the environment. Stone blocks are mainly produced due to a mechanical process that can be supplied by energy from water-, wind-, and hand-power resources. The weight of stone however requires the transportation of the material to be done in short distances, but that could be applied also to the transportation of bricks and concrete. If stones are being extracted in large quantities the landscape of the region changes and that leads to altered groundwater conditions and it can harm local ecosystems. However there is a method of extracting granite called the gloryhole which involves drilling a rock in vertical axes from the top. By drilling that vertical tunnel there is a cone formed in the inside of the rock, meaning that the whole gets wider the deeper it goes. Due to this method the external appearance of the landscape is not/or less disturbed and in lowers the harm on the local ecosystem. By extracting stones there is a small possibility of radon being released in the air and that could harm a local neighborhood, but with the extraction of limestone, marble and sandstone the risk of causing
radiation is significantly low or minimal. A great advantage of stone is that most of its products such as pressed blocks are easily recyclable. Crushed stone has a potential for recycle when concrete is re-used. These recycled products are usually valuable and suitable to be reused. It is known that stone blocks are best to be used in foundations but they can also be used in wall structures. Limestone and sandstone decay in the same way as concrete when exposed to aggressive air pollution. They have a great load carrying capability. Using stone constructions does take us back in time, but with new technologies the stone structure can be improved, insulation from water and frost could make the construction last as long as concrete. Thermal insulation can help stone structures to reach the modern time requirements for thermal loss in connection with energy consumption. Knowing that the embodied energy of the product is low and all the above stated factors make it a sustainable material. There are examples of pure lime mortar keeping its functional properties for 2000 or 3000 years, on the other hand there are examples of Portland cement mortars that have crumbled within 10 years. Some concrete buildings can stay undamaged for over 100 years. That is only to prove that the life span of a construction depends on the materials used and the way that we use them. Of great importance is the environment of the buildings location. All the above stated materials (bricks, concrete and stone) are qualified as materials with low embodied energy but still the resources needed for them to be produced are non renewable. The most popular renewable construction material is timber. Even though a lot of forests have to be cut down for the production of timber, new trees are planted in the same place and in time natures balance will be stabilized. Timber is a material suitable for recycling. Green building minimizes the impact or "environmental footprint" of a building. Wood is the only major building material that is renewable and uses the suns energy to renew itself in a continuous sustainable cycle. Studies show manufacturing wood uses less energy and results in less air and water pollution than steel and concrete www.wikipedia.org November 2011 Of course not all kinds of timber could be used in the construction field. Therefore, timber is divided into two categories softwood and
hardwood. Softwood is mainly used into constructions while hardwood on the other side is used for the manufacturing of furniture. Softwood can be divided in terms of production method: air dried and kiln dried wood. Air drying depends a lot on the climate of the timber factory location. In areas with high humidity the process will be difficult to dry and the other way around. The wooden plates are put onto stacks in a cool, dry and shady place. An important factor in air drying is the appearance of a constant air flow. Air drying wood is a process that consumes zero energy. Kiln drying on the other side is a process where manufacturers expose wood to heat so that the water in its structure will evaporate faster that if air dried. That process provides a better quality control of the material and if controlled properly the occurrence of defects could be minimized. If the temperature used in the drying process is above 60 degrees Celsius the wood is being protected from insects (such as termites). According to the University of Bath sawn softwood has an average of 5.5MJ/kg embodied energy (a result of 33 research cases). These results also include 4.2 MJ of bio energy used in the production. The following table shows a comparison between different materials and their embodied energy (all values are from the Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Version 2.0).
Material Lime stone Softwood Prefabricated concrete Clay bricks
Embodied energy MJ/kg Mminimum 0,03 0,3 1,2 0,63 Maximum 2,45 13 3,8 6 Average 1,24 6,65 2,5 3,2
Figure 9. Embodied energy comparison
The comparison between the embodied energy of the above stated materials is done only from cradle to gate. Surprisingly the softwood average embodied energy has the highest value. But on the other side it
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is from a renewable resource and it also has a lower weight, which means less energy will be used for transportation. If we get to compare a wall structure made from the above stated materials the weight of a timber construction is significantly lower than a stone, concrete or brick construction. The embodied energy of a 5m2 timber construction will be much smaller than the embodied energy of a 5m2 concrete construction, because of the different density of the materials (a cubic meter of wood has a smaller weight than a cubic meter of concrete).
Material Lime stone Softwood (pine,dry) Prefabricated concrete Clay bricks Weight kg/m 2611 750 2370 2402
Figure 10. Weight of materials per cubic meter According to table 4, softwood has the smallest weight per cubic meter. If we combine the information of both tables 3 and 4 a cubic meter of softwood will have an embodied energy of 4988 MJ/m3, when a cubic meter of prefabricated concrete will have an embodied energy of 5925 MJ/m3.
Comparison of concrete, stone, bricks and wood in a construction example
can give us some more information on which of the materials is with the lowest embodied energy. If we have a building of 20m2 with a height of
Figure 11. Plan of a small building used as an example for wall construction comparison.
2.5m and the load-bearing wall layer is 150mm the material used for that layer will have a volume of 6.98 7 if it is made out of bricks, stone or concrete. If the construction is wooden and the cutting list is as it follows: 1. 32 vertical studs (0.2m x 0.06m x 2.5m) = 0.96m3 2. 4 horizontal boards (5m x 0.2m x 0.06m) = 0.24m3 3. 4 horizontal boards (4m x 0.2m x 0.06m) = 0.192m3 The total amount of wooden material used will be 1.392m3 1.4m3. Then the embodied energy of the wooden construction from cradle to gate would be 6943.3 MJ. For concrete it would be 16590MJ, for lime stone blocks it would be 18277MJ and for clay bricks it would be 16814MJ. Therefore the best solution of a construction in that case would be wooden construction. Anyway that is only a rough calculation from cradle to gate. If we assume all the factories producing stone, concrete, bricks and timber are located in the same place and the distance to the building site is 50 km. we can calculate the energy used by the transporting company and compare. If a truck can take only 2 concrete elements of a size 0.15mX2.5mX5m that means it has to make two roundtrips, which means that the distance will be doubled up to 200km and if as we previously estimated that a loaded truck will use 110.4MJ/km, that means that for 200km the truck will spend 22080MJ. Bricks, stones and timber can be delivered in only one round trip because of them being more compact than the concrete elements. Since this is a rough estimation we will assume that the energy used by the trucks transporting bricks and stones will be twice as less as 11040MJ. We cant say the same thing about the truck transporting the timber material, knowing that the weight of the shipment is almost three times less than the other three. Respectively we assume that the timber transporting truck will use only half of the energy => 5520MJ. So from cradle to site the concrete elements have used 28670MJ, the stone blocks have used 29347MJ, the bricks have used 27881MJ, while the timber material has been delivered using only 12463MJ. When delivered on the site the concrete elements have to be erected with a crane. 4 concrete elements could be erected in 2 hours. If the crane is operating for 2 hours it will use an average of 20 liters of diesel fuel, which will be approximately 772MJ. The wooden brick and stone construction is laid by hand and will not consume any important amounts of energy. So the final results of the rough embodied energy
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calculation are as it follows concrete 29442MJ, stone blocks 29347MJ, bricks 27881MJ and wood 12463MJ. In conclusion of the rough estimation many factors lead the result that wood would be the winner in the competition, knowing that it has the lowest embodied energy, the least amount of energy used to transport and no energy to be mounted on site. Wood is also the only material which is made of a renewable recourse. From those four materials in that case the best choice will be wood. Of course every case is different from the others. Wood is a renewable recourse but we still have to consider that the abuse of the world forests is also harming the environment. Cutting down great amounts of trees harms the local ecosystems and even though the ecosystem can be stabilized it needs time for that. It is a well known fact that the forests are the lounges of the Earth and by preserving the forests we are helping mankind and lowering the CO2 emissions, knowing that
Figure 12 Showing the results of mindless cutting of forests
plants are CO2 filters. A great problem is the deforestation of the world, therefore every single time a forest is cut down by human usage the same people have to be responsible for the restoration of the forest. Wood production fields have been established in the world where forests are literally manufactured in order to be cut down and then planted again.
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8. Conclusion
As the world is rapidly developing new technologies and in the same time there is a great negative human impact on the environment we need to find new ways of preserving the planet Earth and its resources. The main problem in concern of energy is the constant abuse and the extinction of energy resources. Of course there are new method and systems invented to create energy such as wind and water power. In the search of new methods scientists have also find it important not only to find innovative solutions but also to lower the amounts of energy used. Here comes the term low embodied energy. In the construction sphere low embodied energy can refer to many parts, but one of the most important once is the embodied energy of the materials used in nowadays constructions. As new standards are established all over the world concerning the energy consumption of a building, constructing companies have to start thinking about the energy consumption of the building during the construction phase. Life cycle assessments are used to predict how much energy, financial and human resources would be used for the construction of a particular project. Thanks to the Life cycle assessment we could also estimate the embodied energy of a building and the process of that is also called Cradle to grave. Cradle to grave is a process where constructing companies calculate the energy used to extract, manufacture and build certain constructions made out of certain materials. It is a fact that life cycle assessment depends on many factors such as planning of the building process, transportation, the execution phase, future maintenance and possible recycling of the used materials. Cradle to grave is a great process that through a complex and time consuming process can estimate the embodied energy of a building from the extraction of raw materials until their recycling. Nowadays modern technologies of building allow us to use various materials. The most common to be defined as low embodied energy materials are: pre-casted concrete elements, bricks, timber, mud bricks and stone. Some of those materials have been used in the past in great amounts but nowadays have been defined as unsuitable. Maybe going back in time would be helpful for the future. In my personal opinion materials such as stone can be easily used in constructions as a substitute of concrete or bricks. Anyway as my research shows me the material with the lowest embodied energy is timber. Not only that it doesnt need great amounts of energy to be extracted, manufactured and used on site, but it is also a renewable resource. A drastic problem worldwide is the pollution of the air, thanks to gas and CO2 emissions. The world building industry is one of the greatest polluters and therefore
solutions to that problem must be found. One part of defining a low embodied energy material is also to estimate the environmental impact of the material or in other words to see how much CO2 is produced, while manufacturing a certain material. There are many factors that need to be considered in the search of a low embodied energy material and for each case there could be a different solution. No certain values can be given due to the extreme amount of variable and unknown figures in the Low Embodied Energy calculation. In conclusion the usage of low embodied energy researches and estimations in the building industry can slow down or prevent the extinction of raw nonrenewable energy resources and prevent harming the environment. In my personal opinion low embodied energy materials have a great future in sustainable design.
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List of references:
Bjrn Berge, The Ecologyof Building Materials, First published as Bygnings materialenes kologi Universitetsforlaget AS 1992 First published in Great Britain 2000, Paperback edition 2001 English edition Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd 2000, 2001 Brander, M., Tipper, R., Hutchison, C., Davis, G Technical Paper | Consequential and Attributional Approaches to LCA: a Guide to Policy Makers with Specific Reference to Greenhouse Gas LCA of Biofuels April 2008 Cole, R.J. and Kernan, P.C. (1996), Life-Cycle Energy Use in Office Buildings, Building and Environment, Vol. 31, No. 4 Prof. Geoff Hammond & Craig Jones, Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Version 2.0 Sustainable Energy Research Team (SERT) Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Bath, UK University of Bath 2011 Websites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber Accessed on the 11th of November 2011 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limestone Accessed on the 9th of November 2011 http://www.canadianarchitect.com/asf/perspectives_sustainibility/measur es_of_sustainablity/measures_of_sustainablity_embodied.htm Accessed on the 30th of October 2011 http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_and_leadership_stand ards/environmental_management/iso_14000_essentials.htm Accessed on the 4th of November 2011 http://www.stonecourses.net/environment/goallca.html Accessed on the 4th of November 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embodied_energy#Embodied_energy_metho dologies Accessed on 19th of October 2011 http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/sert/embodied/ Accessed 25th of October 2011

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Low embodied energy materials in sustainable design

Via University College 28th of November 2011

AUTHOR(S) Study number(s) CONSULTANT

Lazar Petrov Petrov (123953) Jesper Saxgren

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8.Conclusion .................................................................................. 27 List of figures List of references