IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v7y2015i6p7866-7883d51372.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Impacts and Embodied Energy of Construction Methods and Materials in Low-Income Tropical Housing

Author

Listed:
  • Arman Hashemi

    (Centre for Sustainable Development, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK)

  • Heather Cruickshank

    (Centre for Sustainable Development, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, UK)

  • Ali Cheshmehzangi

    (The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, 199 Taikang East Road, Ningbo 315100, China)

Abstract

This paper evaluates the current conditions of Ugandan low-income tropical housing with a focus on construction methods and materials in order to identify the key areas for improvement. Literature review, site visits and photographic surveys are carried out to collect relevant information on prevailing construction methods/materials and on their environmental impacts in rural areas. Low quality, high waste, and energy intensive production methods, as well as excessive soil extraction and deforestation, are identified as the main environmental damage of the current construction methods and materials. The embodied energy is highlighted as the key area which should be addressed to reduce the CO 2 emissions of low-income tropical housing. The results indicate that the embodied energy of fired bricks in Uganda is up to 5.7 times more than general clay bricks. Concrete walling is identified as a much more environmentally friendly construction method compared to brick walling in East African countries. Improving fuel efficiency and moulding systems, increasing access to renewable energy sources, raising public awareness, educating local manufacturers and artisans, and gradual long-term introduction of innovative construction methods and materials which are adapted to local needs and conditions are some of the recommended actions to improve the current conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Arman Hashemi & Heather Cruickshank & Ali Cheshmehzangi, 2015. "Environmental Impacts and Embodied Energy of Construction Methods and Materials in Low-Income Tropical Housing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:6:p:7866-7883:d:51372
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/6/7866/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/6/7866/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cabeza, Luisa F. & Rincón, Lídia & Vilariño, Virginia & Pérez, Gabriel & Castell, Albert, 2014. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) of buildings and the building sector: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 394-416.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ikenna Stephen Ezennia & Sebnem Onal Hoskara, 2019. "Exploring the Severity of Factors Influencing Sustainable Affordable Housing Choice: Evidence from Abuja, Nigeria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-25, October.
    2. Arman Hashemi, 2016. "Climate Resilient Low-Income Tropical Housing," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Mohammad S. M. Almulhim & Dexter V. L. Hunt & Chris D. F. Rogers, 2020. "A Resilience and Environmentally Sustainable Assessment Framework (RESAF) for Domestic Building Materials in Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-24, April.
    4. Jinghan Chen & Wen Zhou & Hongtao Yang & Zhuofei Wu, 2021. "“Grouping” or “Ride One’s Coattails”?—How Developing Countries along the Belt and Road Satisfy Themselves," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-22, June.
    5. Jinghan Chen & Wen Zhou & Hongtao Yang, 2019. "Is Embodied Energy a Better Starting Point for Solving Energy Security Issues?—Based on an Overview of Embodied Energy-Related Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-22, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Burek, Jasmina & Nutter, Darin W., 2019. "A life cycle assessment-based multi-objective optimization of the purchased, solar, and wind energy for the grocery, perishables, and general merchandise multi-facility distribution center network," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1427-1446.
    2. Sierra-Pérez, Jorge & Rodríguez-Soria, Beatriz & Boschmonart-Rives, Jesús & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2018. "Integrated life cycle assessment and thermodynamic simulation of a public building’s envelope renovation: Conventional vs. Passivhaus proposal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1510-1521.
    3. Luis M. López-Ochoa & Jesús Las-Heras-Casas & Luis M. López-González & César García-Lozano, 2020. "Energy Renovation of Residential Buildings in Cold Mediterranean Zones Using Optimized Thermal Envelope Insulation Thicknesses: The Case of Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-34, March.
    4. Sungwoo Lee & Sungho Tae & Seungjun Roh & Taehyung Kim, 2015. "Green Template for Life Cycle Assessment of Buildings Based on Building Information Modeling: Focus on Embodied Environmental Impact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Patricia González-Vallejo & Radu Muntean & Jaime Solís-Guzmán & Madelyn Marrero, 2020. "Carbon Footprint of Dwelling Construction in Romania and Spain. A Comparative Analysis with the OERCO2 Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    6. Roux, Charlotte & Schalbart, Patrick & Assoumou, Edi & Peuportier, Bruno, 2016. "Integrating climate change and energy mix scenarios in LCA of buildings and districts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 619-629.
    7. Cui, Li & Chan, Hing Kai & Zhou, Yizhuo & Dai, Jing & Lim, Jia Jia, 2019. "Exploring critical factors of green business failure based on Grey-Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 450-461.
    8. Antonello Monsù Scolaro & Stefania De Medici, 2021. "Downcycling and Upcycling in Rehabilitation and Adaptive Reuse of Pre-Existing Buildings: Re-Designing Technological Performances in an Environmental Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-23, October.
    9. Maria Anna Cusenza & Teresa Maria Gulotta & Marina Mistretta & Maurizio Cellura, 2021. "Life Cycle Energy and Environmental Assessment of the Thermal Insulation Improvement in Residential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-21, June.
    10. Sultan Çetin & Catherine De Wolf & Nancy Bocken, 2021. "Circular Digital Built Environment: An Emerging Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-34, June.
    11. Jin-Young Park & Byung-Soo Kim & Dong-Eun Lee, 2021. "Environmental and Cost Impact Assessment of Pavement Materials Using IBEES Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    12. Dzikuć Maciej, 2015. "Environmental management with the use of LCA in the Polish energy system," Management, Sciendo, vol. 19(1), pages 89-97, May.
    13. Qianqian Zhao & Junzhen Li & Roman Fediuk & Sergey Klyuev & Darya Nemova, 2021. "Benefit Evaluation Model of Prefabricated Buildings in Seasonally Frozen Regions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-18, November.
    14. Chau, C.K. & Xu, J.M. & Leung, T.M. & Ng, W.Y., 2017. "Evaluation of the impacts of end-of-life management strategies for deconstruction of a high-rise concrete framed office building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P2), pages 1595-1603.
    15. Ana Ferreira & Manuel Duarte Pinheiro & Jorge de Brito & Ricardo Mateus, 2022. "Embodied vs. Operational Energy and Carbon in Retail Building Shells: A Case Study in Portugal," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, December.
    16. Kong, Minjin & Lee, Minhyun & Kang, Hyuna & Hong, Taehoon, 2021. "Development of a framework for evaluating the contents and usability of the building life cycle assessment tool," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    17. Kai Yin & Dengsheng Lu & Yichen Tian & Qianjun Zhao & Chao Yuan, 2014. "Evaluation of Carbon and Oxygen Balances in Urban Ecosystems Using Land Use/Land Cover and Statistical Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-27, December.
    18. Stanislav Shmelev & Harrison Roger Brook, 2021. "Macro Sustainability across Countries: Key Sector Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-46, October.
    19. Adedayo Johnson Ogungbile & Geoffrey Qiping Shen & Ibrahim Yahaya Wuni & Jin Xue & Jingke Hong, 2021. "A Hybrid Framework for Direct CO 2 Emissions Quantification in China’s Construction Sector," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-22, November.
    20. Mastrucci, Alessio & Marvuglia, Antonino & Leopold, Ulrich & Benetto, Enrico, 2017. "Life Cycle Assessment of building stocks from urban to transnational scales: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 316-332.

    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:7:y:2015:i:6:p:7866-7883:d:51372. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.