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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

28/03/24 10:42 AM IST

Sustainable building materials

In News
  • India is witnessing an unprecedented construction boom, with over 3,00,000 housing units erected annually.
Construction sector
  • Addressing energy inefficiency in residential buildings is crucial, given India’s rising energy and cooling demand due to economic growth, urbanisation, heat islands, and climate change.
  • Initiatives like the Eco-Niwas Samhita (ENS) and the Residential Energy Conservation Building Code are steps in the right direction.
  • The ENS introduces the Residential Envelope Transmittance Value (RETV), a metric measuring heat transfer through a building’s envelope.
  • Lower RETV values lead to cooler indoor environments and decreased energy usage.
  • For optimal efficiency, improved occupant comfort, and lower utility expenses, it’s recommended to maintain an RETV of 15W/m2 or less.
  • However, current construction trends favour fast-paced, energy-intensive techniques with active cooling strategies, leading to compromises in thermal comfort.
  • There needs to be more widespread knowledge about climate-appropriate design and architecture, with perceptions of high first costs as a barrier to the design and construction of climate-responsive buildings needing to change.
Materials optimal
  • Our analysis across four warmer climate cities in India highlighted the popularity of materials like Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) blocks, red bricks, fly ash, and monolithic concrete (Mivan).
  • Despite concerns about sustainability, monolithic concrete construction was favoured by building developers for its speed, strength, quality, and scalability, with over 60% of buildings under design and construction phases opting for it, especially in high-rise buildings and skyscrapers.
  • The RETV evaluation for these buildings revealed that AAC blocks consistently had the lowest RETV across all climatic conditions, indicating their potential as a thermally efficient material.
  • Based on literature review, a comparison of building materials for a 100 sq. ft wall area displayed substantial differences in embodied energy (the energy associated with the manufacturing of a product), with monolithic concrete having an embodied energy 75 times greater than AAC.
  • Sustainability concerns are prominent across all materials. Red bricks exhibit moderate embodied energy, contributing to resource depletion, emissions, and waste.
  • While AAC blocks have lower embodied energy, they still contribute to emissions and waste.
  • Monolithic concrete, despite its quick construction time, presents the highest embodied energy, significant environmental impact, and sustainability challenges. Hence, AAC blocks offer a better balance between embodied energy and construction time than red bricks and monolithic concrete.
Way forward
  • India has significant untapped potential for innovative building materials. Interdisciplinary collaborations with sustainability experts to delve deeper into integrated design and optimise strategies like building orientation, Window Wall Ratio (WWR), U-value (rate of heat transfer) of walls, roofs and window assemblies, glazing performance, active cooling systems, etc., can unlock the potential for a sustainable built environment.
  • The construction industry’s preference for Mivan as a prime building material raises sustainability concerns, including high embodied carbon and thermal discomfort.
  • Sustainable construction requires innovation from building materials manufacturers to develop cost-effective, scalable, durable, fire-resistant solutions with superior thermal performance and climate resilience.
  • In conclusion, the journey toward sustainable construction is challenging but essential for a greener future.
  • By re-imagining construction design and practices, manufacturing innovative walling materials, and fostering a culture of sustainability, we can create resilient and energy-efficient structures that align with environmental goals and significantly improve the quality of life for the masses.
Source- The Hindu

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