Embodied Energy And Its Impact On
Architectural Decisions
Author(s)
H. J. Holtzhausen
Abstract
When sustainability is the driving force in the creation of a building, specifiers
and architects need additional knowledge to assist them in making decisions
about the choice of building materials and the way in which they are used. This
article brings together embodied energy values in different materials with a view
to adjusting decisions made by specifiers and architects that will have the effect
of extending the life of a building and increasing its environmental value.
Embodied energy is the total non-renewable energy that goes into the
manufacture of a material and plays a large role in the choice of building
materials. It is an important factor to consider when assessing the life cycle of a
building and it relates directly to the sustainability of the built environment.
This paper examines embodied energy of the most dominant building
materials/components such as cement, steel, and aluminium and assesses the
source of the largest consumption of energy in the life cycle of the building
material.
Data is drawn from a variety of sources, mostly from the manufacturers’ data
of the specific building materials to assess the biggest cause of energy
consumption. Previously scattered information known in specific industries is
brought together for the building industry. The compilation of information
provided will assist in the making of informed decisions when considering a
sustainable approach to the life cycle of a building.
To ignore the importance of embodied energy when doing a Life Cycle
Assessment, the building’s cost in the end could become very expensive because
of the impact of maintenance and differential durability. With a little more
planning to consider the life cycle and embodied energy of the materials used at
the initial stage of creating a building, it could become far more sustainable.
Keywords: embodied energy, Life Cycle Assessment.
Keywords
embodied energy, Life Cycle Assessment.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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