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Reducing The Environmental Impacts Of Building Materials: Embodied Energy Analysis Of A High-Performance Building, Layla Qarout

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to assess the embodied energy and carbon emissions of structural building materials, and determine environmental savings associated with construction. In common architectural practice, the analysis of the environmental cost of materials is typically not taken into account. This can be attributed to the lack of available data, loyalty to conventional construction methods, and complexity of embodied energy calculations. Although efforts are made to ensure accuracy of the information contained in energy databases, they are based on public domain sources and the “best” energy and carbon coefficients, with no guarantee to accuracy. Therefore, it is …