IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i15p8505-d604553.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Impacts of Renewable Insulation Materials

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Geß

    (Department Life Cycle Engineering GaBi, Institute for Acoustics and Building Physics IABP, University of Stuttgart, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany)

  • Manuel Lorenz

    (Department Life Cycle Engineering GaBi, Institute for Acoustics and Building Physics IABP, University of Stuttgart, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany)

  • Anna Tolsdorf

    (Department Life Cycle Engineering GaBi, Institute for Acoustics and Building Physics IABP, University of Stuttgart, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany)

  • Stefan Albrecht

    (Department Life Cycle Engineering GaBi, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP, 70563 Stuttgart, Germany)

Abstract

According to the IEA Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2019, one of the main industry sectors causing environmental impacts is the construction sector. Hence, construction materials from renewable resources are expected to have a large potential to decrease these impacts. In this study, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted for four different insulation materials from renewable feedstock: insulation made from pasture grass, seaweed, reed, and recycled jute fibres. Additionally, the effects on land use change were evaluated for pasture grass insulation using the LANCA ® methodology. To put the LCA results in relation to those of non-renewable resources, a comparison of standardized LCA values for conventional insulation materials is presented. In general, the renewable insulation materials show fewer environmental impacts than their conventional counterparts. In particular, these materials have advantages regarding greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate change. Of the analyzed materials, seaweed showed the overall lowest emissions. It can be concluded that insulation materials from non-mineral, non-fossil, and non-wooden resources are still fairly niche in terms of market share, but they have extraordinary potential in decreasing the environmental impacts of construction ventures.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Geß & Manuel Lorenz & Anna Tolsdorf & Stefan Albrecht, 2021. "Environmental Impacts of Renewable Insulation Materials," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8505-:d:604553
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8505/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8505/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aleksandra Ivanovska & Marija Milošević & Bratislav Obradović & Zorica Svirčev & Mirjana Kostić, 2023. "Plasma Treatment as a Sustainable Method for Enhancing the Wettability of Jute Fabrics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Simon Pescari & Mircea Merea & Alexandru Pitroacă & Clara-Beatrice Vilceanu, 2022. "A Particular Case of Urban Sustainability: Comparison Study of the Efficiency of Multiple Thermal Insulations for Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-13, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8505-:d:604553. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.