Green Recovery And Reconstruction: Training Toolkit For Humanitarian Aid
Materials and the Supply Chain
Session 2: Building Materials and the Environment
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SESSION 2 - OBJECTIVES
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Demonstrate the environmental impacts of building material choices for reconstruction projects
Apply the principles of the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) to building material selection
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Application to you:
What you can do in your role as program officer,
project planner, or funder to achieve the aims of
environmentally sustainable materials selection in
reconstruction programs.
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Two tools to inform selection of building materials
Life Cycle Analysis
Environmental Impact Assessment
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Tool 1: Life Cycle Analysis The Cradle to Cradle Life of a Brick
Every step requires energy, and has an environmental cost
Extraction
Colin Beatie
Processing
Colin Beatie
Transport
Colin Beatie
Building/ Maintaining
UN Photo/Jawad Jalali
Demo/ disposal
Colin Beatie
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Extraction
/
Mining the clay destroys habitat and consumes energy
Photo by colin-beattie.blogspot.com
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Processing
Six large trees are needed to fire approximately 10,000 bricks – for 1 small house.
UNEP photo - A brick kiln at Abu Shouk camp in Northern Darfur
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Transport
Strangecosmos.com
Fuel is consumed in the transportation to the site
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Building / Maintaining
Construction Workers in Kabul build a brick wall for a new building.
UN Photo/Jawad Jalali
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Demolition/disposal/reuse…Back to the cradle
Tsunami destruction in Banda Aceh, Indonesia – how easy is it to reuse the bricks for reconstruction?
UN HABITAT photo
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This applies to all building materials, what are the energy costs associated with the “life” of this nipa palm roofing thatch?
Images from www.pacificworlds.com
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Embodied Energy…
...the energy used in the work of making a product. It is an accounting methodology which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product lifecycle: extraction, transport, installation, etc.
Expressed as mega joules of energy needed to make a kilogram of product: Mj/kg
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Embodied Energy
A brick is not just a brick. It also represents….
8.4 Mj per brick of embodied energyin the UK -- as determined by the Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) of the University of Bath website (https://wiki.bath.ac.uk).
Photo by Colin Beatie
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Quick Practice with EE
Common Bricks Soil Cement Bricks Concrete Concrete Block Timber – Sawn Hardwood Timber – Sawn Softwood Particle Board or Plywood
Let’s build a wall……choosing the materials with the lowest EE, your choices are:
Colin Beatie
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MATERIAL EE – Mj/kg
Common Bricks 3.00
Plywood 15.00
Sawn Softwood 7.40
Particle Board 9.50
Sawn Hardwood 7.80
Concrete Block 0.60
Concrete 0.95
Soil Cement Bricks 0.85
EXAMPLE VALUES FROM THE ICE CHART OF EE VALUES
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MATERIAL EE – Mj/kg
Common Bricks 3.00
Plywood 15.00
Sawn Softwood 7.40
Particle Board 9.50
Sawn Hardwood 7.80
Concrete Block 0.60
Concrete 0.95
Soil Cement Bricks 0.85
Which material has the LOWEST EE?
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MATERIAL EE – Mj/kg
Common Bricks 3.00
Plywood 15.00
Sawn Softwood 7.40
Particle Board 9.50
Sawn Hardwood 7.80
Concrete Block 0.60
Concrete 0.95
Soil Cement Bricks 0.85
Which material has the HIGHEST EE?Is this all you need to know to decide which
material to choose?
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Analysis…
Which are the materials with the lowest embodied energy from the ICE chart?
What does this mean in practical terms?
What else do you need to know to use this approach successfully?
MATERIAL EE – Mj/kg
Common Bricks 3.00
Plywood 15.00
Sawn Softwood 7.40
Particle Board 9.50
Sawn Hardwood 7.80
Concrete Block 0.60
Concrete 0.95
Soil Cement Bricks 0.85
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Why is the concept of embodied energy relevant to us?
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Tool 2: Environmental Impact Assessment
A brick is not just a brick – environmental effects will be different for different groups or locations or ecosystems
Earth, air and water
Wildlife and plants
Local population
Artisans and builders
Homeowners
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Assess who is affected
http://www.speak.org.uk/files/images/Deforestation_2e.img_assist_custom.jpg
Wood harvesting leading to deforestation
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Assess what is affected
Collection of traditional building materials at an unsustainable rate affects the ability for some species to regenerate and destroys habitat for other species.
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Assess where are the effects?
UNEP photo – S. Rocha
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Environmental Impact Assessment Tools
See Module 3 Environmental Impact Assessment Tools and Techniques
Environmental Stewardship Review for Humanitarian Aid (WWF & American Red Cross)
Annex VIII Project Environmental Review Record, UNEP, SKAT
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Three R Analysis
Recycle Reuse
Reduce
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REDUCE Total Material Amounts
Design for minimum response in terms of materials consumed. Put simply – use the least (but still acceptable) amount of materials in order to ensure the least cost and damage to the community and environment.
Choose materials with lower embodied energy Buy materials with least inherent waste in their
use Train workers/ artisans to minimize waste during
construction
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RECYCLE
Recycle damaged materials where possible Use or buy materials with a high recycled content
percentage
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REUSE: The Gift of Rubble
UNEP photo – Indonesia Tsunamoi aftermath
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Exercise: How can we put these materials to good use?
Green waste, such as trees and shrubs
Concrete and asphalt
Metal
Brick
Dirt
Many materials can be recovered and re-used for their original purpose (bent roofing sheets)
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Wrong design - Wasted materials
http://www.conceptrends.com
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Overall Resource Efficiency
Include environmental factors when conducting benefit-cost analyses for material selection and procurement options.
Design to use fewer materials (and those with lower embodied energy).
Use local sources – where this can be done in a sustainable way.
Use materials with recycled content (e.g., fly ash)
Consider disaster debris as a construction material
Support only sustainable or legal sourcing of materials (e.g., use of legal timber).
Train workers/ artisans to minimize waste during construction
Environmentally-aware planners consider:
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3-R Analysis in Practice
Applications – What can you do in your role as funder, project planner, or program officer to achieve these aims of materials selection in reconstruction programs?
Recycle Reuse
Reduce
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LUNCH
