Open Access
ARTICLE
Reducing the Environmental Impact of Construction by Using Renewable Materials
Mike Lawrence
BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath, UK
* Corresponding Author:
Journal of Renewable Materials 2015, 3(3), 163-174. https://doi.org/10.7569/JRM.2015.634105
Received 25 January 2015; Accepted 05 May 2015;
Abstract
The relative importance of embodied energy and operational energy on the environmental impact of
construction are examined in this article. It highlights the fact that the targets set by the Kyoto Protocol are
primarily being met by the reduction of in-use energy, and that the implications of that are that the energy
embodied in buildings will increase in signifi cance from its current 17% level to 50% by 2050. The article
describes how the use of bio-based renewable materials can make a signifi cant contribution to reducing not
only the embodied energy of buildings by using the sequestration of CO2
through photosynthesis, but also
in-use energy demand through passive environmental control. Case studies are presented showing ways in
which this has been achieved.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Lawrence, M. (2015). Reducing the Environmental Impact of Construction by Using Renewable Materials.
Journal of Renewable Materials, 3(3), 163–174.