Materials and the Supply Chain
Session 2: Building Materials and
the Environment
Green Recovery And Reconstruction: Training Toolkit For Humanitarian Aid
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
Mod 5 Ses 2
2
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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3
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
Extraction Processing Transport
Colin Beatie
Colin Beatie
Building/
Maintaining
Colin BeatieUN Photo/Jawad Jalali
Demo/
disposal
Colin Beatie
Every step requires energy, and has an environmental cost
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Extraction
/
Photo
by colin-beattie.blogspot.com
Mining the clay destroys habitat and consumes energy
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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
UN Photo/Jawad Jalali
Construction Workers in Kabul build a brick wall
for a new building.
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Demolition/disposal/reuse…Back to the cradle
UN HABITAT photo
Tsunami destruction in Banda Aceh, Indonesia –
how easy is it to reuse the bricks for
reconstruction?
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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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Photo by Colin Beatie
Embodied Energy
A brick is not just a brick. It also represents….
8.4 Mj per brick of embodied energy
in the UK -- as determined by the Inventory of Carbon
& Energy (ICE) of the University of Bath website
(https://wiki.bath.ac.uk).
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Quick Practice with EE
Let’s build a wall……choosing the materials with
the lowest EE, your choices are:








Common Bricks
Soil Cement Bricks
Concrete
Concrete Block
Timber – Sawn Hardwood
Timber – Sawn Softwood
Particle Board or
Plywood
Colin Beatie
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EXAMPLE VALUES FROM THE ICE CHART
OF EE VALUES
MATERIAL
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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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Which material has the LOWEST EE?
MATERIAL
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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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Which material has the HIGHEST EE?
Is this all you need to know to decide which
material to choose?
MATERIAL
Mod 5 Ses 2
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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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?
Mod 5 Ses 2
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
18
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
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Local
population
Homeowners
Artisans and
builders
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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
Reduce
Recycle
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Reuse
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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
Environmentally-aware planners consider:
 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
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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?
Reduce
Recycle
Reuse
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LUNCH
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