TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Professional Green Building Council

Theme C: Education and Market TransformationENVIRONMENTAL PROFILING OF MASONRY WALLPRODUCTS REGARDING THE MANUFACTURE ANDCONSTRUCTION PHASESHÜLYA KUS 1 , ECEM EDIS 1 AND ERTAN ÖZKAN 21Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey2Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Beykent University, Istanbul, TurkeyABSTRACT: This paper deals with the life cycle assessment (LCA) of masonry wall products ingeneral, and the environmental performance in terms of energy consumption and impacts due tomanufacturing of pumice concrete and autoclaved aerated concrete blocks in particular. Materialsacquisition processes either as raw material extraction or purchasing of processed basic materials,wall block production processes, transporting and plant facility management are studied throughinventory investigations carried out at visited plants. Data is collected to analyse the inputs andoutputs during the aforementioned processes. Depletion of mineral resources and rehabilitation ofrural area and land following the raw materials extraction are other major concerns in LCA studies.The production and construction phases of masonry products are briefly discussed fromsustainability point of view. Examination of green house gas emissions based on energy types andconsumptions will be the next step of the ongoing research study.Keywords: masonry wall products, sustainability, LCA, manufacture, building, construction.1. INTRODUCTIONSustainable building and construction with respect to environmental and economicconsiderations are becoming more and more important because of high CO2emissions attributed to increasing energy consumption in the building andconstruction sector.Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach is, in general, used as a tool to assess theenvironmental performance of buildings, and mainly consists of inventory analysisand impact assessment of building products [1-2]. The life cycle of a buildingproduct includes five main stages; (i) raw materials acquisition, (ii) manufacturing(iii) construction (iv) use and (v) disposal phases. All stages include transportation.Recent studies indicate that, product manufacturing and construction phases havealso important effects on the total environmental impact as well as the use phase ofbuildings [3-6].639