Editorial Feature

A to Z of Green Building Materials

Growing evidence for anthropogenic climate change has forced industries to work to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Several strategies have been explored in the construction industry of late, including making increased use of renewable energy, green manufacturing processes, and green building materials.

material, building, carbon, building materials, construction, construction industry, emissions

Image Credit: petrmalinak/Shutterstock.com

The rapid increase in the world population and urbanization has led to the need for an unprecedented amount of building materials to construct domestic, commercial, and industrial buildings, and infrastructure such as roads, tunnels, and power stations. Concrete, steel, and glass are ubiquitous building materials in the modern era, but their manufacture uses vast amounts of raw materials and water and emits copious amounts of greenhouse gases per year.

Cement manufacture alone produces 622 kg of carbon dioxide per tonne of cement produced, with around four billion tons of cement produced annually. A staggering 8% of total global carbon dioxide emissions come from cement manufacture alone. Moreover, embodied carbon, which is carbon released over the entire life cycle of a building, including end-of-life material disposal, is responsible for 11% of total global carbon emissions. The impact of these “hidden” emissions is vast.

Several conventional and innovative green building materials are increasingly being explored to reduce the impact on the construction industry. Here are some traditional and state-of-the-art green building materials that are helping to improve sustainability in the construction industry and reduce its carbon footprint.

Reclaimed Wood

Wood has been used for millennia as a construction material. The use of reclaimed wood utilizes waste streams and can be easily sourced from construction sites, retired barns, pallets, and salvage yards. This material saves virgin resources and reduces landfill usage. Reclaimed wood is useful for structural framing, flooring, and cabinetry. Reclaimed wood is lightweight but has drawbacks, including reduced strength and treatment and reinforcement needs.

Bamboo

Bamboo is an incredibly fast-growing and carbon-neutral building material. This perennial grass grows in many parts of the world and continues to proliferate without the need for replanting. Bamboo possesses a high strength-to-weight ratio, is long-lasting, and has greater compressive strength than concrete or brick. Useful for flooring and cabinetry, one drawback is the need for treatment to avoid rot, water absorption, and insect infestation.

Rammed Earth

Another ancient material, rammed earth, is a long-lasting green material. It has benefits for use in foundations, floors, walls, and can be pressed into wooden frames to produce a building material similar to concrete. Walls and floors constructed from rammed earth can be used as natural thermal storage, being warmed by the sun in the daytime and releasing their heat in the evening when it is cooler.

Rammed earth buildings contain vastly reduced amounts of embodied carbon than traditional concrete buildings and can be strengthened by the use of bamboo or rebar.

Recycled Plastic

Recycled plastic can be used for several purposes in building projects, such as flooring, roofing, and windows. Utilizing plastic waste reduces the environmental impact of both the construction industry and the plastics industry, reducing landfilling and helping to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, several innovative studies have explored the incorporation of polymeric materials into concrete as aggregates, reducing carbon emissions and improving its mechanical and chemical properties.

Reclaimed and Recycled Steel

Steel has the advantage of being 100% recyclable, and the use of reclaimed and recycled steel significantly reduces energy demands and carbon emissions. Possessing sufficient mechanical and physical properties even after re-processing, recycled and reclaimed steel can be used for structural framework, roofing, facades, and foundations and is an incredibly long-lasting construction material.

HempCrete

HempCrete is an innovative green material that uses hemp, a natural and sustainable resource and carbon sink, to construct a concrete-like material. The hemp plant’s woody inner fibers are combined with lime to construct renewable, carbon-neutral, strong, and lightweight blocks that reduce transportation costs and energy. The material is fire-resistant and has good acoustic and thermal insulation properties.

Timbercrete

Similar to Hempcrete, Timbercete makes use of renewable and CO-neutral resources to produce a green concrete-like material. Timbercrete uses sawdust, a valuable waste material produced by the construction and carpentry industries, to replace a proportion of the energy-intensive materials used in traditional concrete manufacture. It can be used to create bricks, blocks, and paving slabs.

Mycelium

Mycelium is the root structure of fungi. This natural material makes use of a valuable waste stream from the agricultural and food industries to create a green, sustainable, and low-carbon building material. Composites of mycelium and pasteurized sawdust are strong and lightweight and can be shaped into a multitude of shaped bricks for different construction purposes. Able to withstand extreme temperatures, mycelium-based composites can be used as green insulation and fire-resistant concrete alternatives.

Ferrock

Another innovative green building material, Ferrock is a relatively new addition to the sustainable toolkit of the construction industry. Waste industrial materials such as ferrous rock and steel dust, which would otherwise be sent to landfills, are used to manufacture a concrete-like building material with superior strength.

In the drying and hardening process during production, carbon dioxide is trapped and absorbed, making the material carbon neutral. This innovative green material can be mixed and poured like traditional concrete to produce structures, pathways, flooring, and construction elements like staircases. Research has indicated that Ferrock is extremely weather-resistant, making it a hard-wearing construction material.

The Future

With the environmental impact of the construction industry becoming clearer, the drive toward net zero in the sector is accelerating. Green building materials are becoming a hot button topic in the construction industry and provide an innovative, forward-thinking solution to reducing the carbon footprint of the industry whilst providing new materials that perform as well as or better than traditional building materials.

More from AZoBuild: What To Know About Bioengineered Construction Materials

References and Further Reading

International Code Council (2022) Embodied Carbon in Buildings and Building Materials [online] iccsafe.org. Available at: https://www.iccsafe.org/advocacy/embodied-carbon/

Kukreja, R (2022) 15 Sustainable and Green Building Construction Materials [online] conserve-energy-future.com. Available at: https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/sustainable-construction-materials.php

Clark, T (2021) Cement: how its carbon impact can be reduced [online] constructionnews.co.uk. Available at: https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/sustainability/carbon-cementing-net-zero-22-11-2021/

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

Reginald Davey

Written by

Reginald Davey

Reg Davey is a freelance copywriter and editor based in Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Writing for AZoNetwork represents the coming together of various interests and fields he has been interested and involved in over the years, including Microbiology, Biomedical Sciences, and Environmental Science.

Citations

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

  • APA

    Davey, Reginald. (2022, May 16). A to Z of Green Building Materials. AZoBuild. Retrieved on April 28, 2024 from https://www.azobuild.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8544.

  • MLA

    Davey, Reginald. "A to Z of Green Building Materials". AZoBuild. 28 April 2024. <https://www.azobuild.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8544>.

  • Chicago

    Davey, Reginald. "A to Z of Green Building Materials". AZoBuild. https://www.azobuild.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8544. (accessed April 28, 2024).

  • Harvard

    Davey, Reginald. 2022. A to Z of Green Building Materials. AZoBuild, viewed 28 April 2024, https://www.azobuild.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=8544.

Tell Us What You Think

Do you have a review, update or anything you would like to add to this article?

Leave your feedback
Your comment type
Submit

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.