Environmental impact is a wide topic that more people and sectors of the economy are paying attention to when making daily living and business decisions. Information on the issue is particularly coming to light in the construction industry, which traditionally is known for its harsh impacts on natural resources and environments.
Numerous eco-friendly building materials have emerged in the marketplace to reduce the environmental impact of building construction and operations. But identifying the world’s most eco-friendly building materials can be a bit tricky because different people have different definitions of sustainability.
Embodied energy examines both obvious and hidden factors that contribute to a material’s sustainability or lack thereof. It is “the sum of all the energy required from extracting a material — like granite or stone or ore out of the ground — all the way until its end of life,” Mike Stopka, building and built environments lead at Delta Institute, told Smart Cities Dive.
That includes anything a material requires for growth, production and transportation, including the water and other resources needed to grow natural items as well as the gas consumed during product transportation. “People are starting to think about this more and more,” Stopka said.
Sustainable construction also takes into consideration a material’s appropriateness for the climate in which it is used. Some materials hold up well in arid, cool environments but degrade in humid, hot areas. Degradation and replacement frequency need to factor into an item’s overall eco-friendliness.
“There’s no material that’s perfect,” Stopka said, but some are more sustainable than others. “There are some common characteristics of materials that have low embodied energy,” he said, such as being lightweight and locally sourced.
Smart Cities Dive compiled a list of five materials that frequently make experts’ lists of eco-friendly building components.
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