The construction industry is exploring ways to minimize its environmental impact, and one way it’s actively changing is through the materials used. Looking for sustainable resources that can last a long time has become a higher priority, and running life cycle assessments even during the engineering stage is an effective way to achieve that.
The Importance of Life Cycle Assessments
A life cycle assessment involves measuring a project’s environmental footprint over its lifetime. Engineers typically ensure accuracy by assessing the project inventory and interpreting factors such as the amount of manual work involved, the overall energy consumption and more.
Keep in mind that a life cycle impact assessment is different. A life cycle assessment example would be thoroughly understanding the environmental implications of cement from its extraction until its breakdown. Meanwhile, impact assessments would mainly focus on how the cement affects the project’s sustainability through numerical data.
Here’s how engineers analyze different life cycle stages.
Raw Material Extraction
Extraction of raw materials involves gathering resources from the environment. It utilizes a significant amount of energy and causes substantial environmental damage. If it’s non-renewable resources, engineers must also consider how many resources are depleted
Fossil fuels and metal minerals are some of the most popular resources for building materials. However, these materials are finite and can take too much water and machinery to procure from the Earth, especially when compared to more renewable materials like wood.
Manufacturing
A life cycle assessment also analyzes how raw materials are processed into a usable product for a construction project, including the assembly and packaging required to send it out. During these stages, engineers may look for opportunities to make the production methods less harmful, like using clean energy or investing in waste reduction.
Use
The products used to construct a building should offer more than just a foundation. Do the materials help minimize the occupants’ overall emissions and improve energy efficiency by allowing airflow or insulating the temperature? Would they require frequent maintenance that would also exhaust additional energy and resources? How long would the materials be in use?
End-of-life
The final phase is key to analyzing when running a life cycle assessment. Certain materials are demolished, creating a large amount of debris that can never be repurposed again, which isn’t the most sustainable approach. While there are advanced techniques to convert them for better use, it may still require too many other materials.
Life Cycle Engineering’s Role in Sustainable Construction
The scope of a life cycle assessment can differ significantly. For some teams, it means identifying hot spots they would have to deal with in a project — it’s a chance to discover sustainable engineering methods to help construction companies make the projects more amicable for the environment.
Meanwhile, others compare alternative resources to see which can provide optimal building performance without environmental harm. The assessment can involve more thorough research, but it would involve mindfully choosing materials that would be better long-term.
Running a Material Life Cycle Analysis
Take a more in-depth look at the cement life cycle assessment example. Cement is widely used because of its durability. However, manufacturing for this material is responsible for almost 8% of CO2 emissions worldwide.
In the production stage, companies reduce their environmental impact by mixing cement with supplementary cementitious materials. The additives can stretch an inventory of this finite resource while strengthening the structure.
Other engineering sustainability practices would be to employ carbon capture and storage technologies. The sooner these particles are contained, the safer the use phase will be for inhabitants and the atmosphere.
However, if a material swap is ideal, it could be possible to use more durable resources requiring less processing. Rammed earth and natural stone can be viable alternatives for a wide range of uses.
Integrating Sustainable Engineering in Action
A life cycle assessment can influence many material choices. For instance, the Caterpillar House is built using rammed earth and sits securely on its hill. The material regulates the LEED-Platinum home’s temperature all day for maximum efficiency.
Sustainable engineering can also be seen in the building composition. Passive house designs are gaining more traction, as they’re a tested and proven way to reduce heating and cooling needs in the long run.
Improvements to Look Forward to in the Future
Life cycle engineering has come a long way after so many years of development, but there’s still much room for improvement. Academic papers about AI-based life cycle engineering have been rising since 2015, with hopes of simplifying the life cycle assessment process. It’s mainly centered on classification, prediction, decision-making and data analysis.
Further technology could also improve the materials themselves. For example, a study finds that nanotech can be used to enhance structural integrity and ensure they’re ready for greater load-bearing applications.
Be Intentional With Materials
Conceptualizing sustainable materials into projects is one thing, but executing them makes an actual difference. Life cycle engineering can be a game-changer in creating sustainable projects for the inhabitants and the environment.
