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Environmental impact assessment of building foundation in masonry family houses related to the total used building materials
Author(s) -
Ondova Marcela,
Estokova Adriana
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
environmental progress and sustainable energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.495
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1944-7450
pISSN - 1944-7442
DOI - 10.1002/ep.12307
Subject(s) - embodied energy , foundation (evidence) , masonry , global warming potential , greenhouse gas , environmental science , global warming , environmental impact assessment , civil engineering , environmental engineering , engineering , architectural engineering , climate change , geography , ecology , archaeology , biology
Analysis of the environmental impact of particular structures may be helpful for selecting building materials, with regard to the environmental performance of buildings in the early project phase. This paper focused on the environmental evaluation of building foundation materials used in eight masonry residential buildings. Environmental evaluation was based on calculation of the embodied energy, the global warming potential, and the acidification potential of building foundations. One kilogramme of built‐in foundation materials was responsible for emissions of 0.092 kg of greenhouse gases expressed by carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and for 0.3 g of acidification gases represented by sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ). Embodied energy was calculated as equal to 1.14 MJ per one kilogramme of foundation materials and 832.2 MJ/m 2 per building floor area. The foundation materials of houses contributed to the total environmental impact of the whole buildings by, on average, 15.0%, 22.8%, and 13.3% for embodied energy, global warming potential, and acidification potential, respectively. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 1113–1120, 2016