Embodied energy and embodied carbon of structural building materials: Worldwide progress and barriers through literature map analysis

Climate change mitigation is a recurrent consciousness topic among society and policymakers. Actions are being adopted to face this crucial environmental challenge, with a rising concern with a big impact on the building sector. Construction materials have a high carbon footprint as well as an energ...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Cabeza Fabra, Luisa Fernanda; Boquera Marcelo, Laura; Cháfer Nicolas, Marta; Vérez Hernández, David
Format: Article
Publication date:2021
Country:España
Institution:Consejo General de la Arquitectura Técnica de España (CGATE)
Repository:RIARTE
OAI Identifier:oai:www.riarte.es:20.500.12251/2558
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12251/2558
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85096158846&doi=10.1016%2fj.enbuild.2020.110612&partnerID=40&md5=837d2c08d7540d0891f47df8eefc5c01
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Revisión bibliográfica
Huella de carbono
Material de construcción
Cambio climático
Impacto medioambiental
Ciclo de vida
3313.04 Material de Construcción
3308.04 Ingeniería de la Contaminación
3308.01 Control de la Contaminación Atmosférica
Description
Summary:Climate change mitigation is a recurrent consciousness topic among society and policymakers. Actions are being adopted to face this crucial environmental challenge, with a rising concern with a big impact on the building sector. Construction materials have a high carbon footprint as well as an energy-intensive activity. To measure the environmental damage and effects, life cycle assessment (LCA) is the methodology most widespread. However, the LCA methodology itself and the assumptions done to carry it out leads to a generalized burden to compare the case studies outcomes. LCA method and for instance geographical location are incompatibilities also revealed in embodied energy and embodied carbon assessments. Urgent actions are needed to clarify the confusions arisen in the research, considering a detailed study on the embodied energy and embodied carbon values. From a material level point of view, this paper aims to illustrate the chronological overview of embodied energy and embodied carbon through keywords analysis. Moreover, to support and corroborate the analysis, an organized summary of the literature data is presented, reporting the range of embodied energy and embodied carbon values up to now. This systematic analysis evidences the lack of standardization and disagreement regarding the assessment of coefficients, database source, and boundary system used in the methodology assessment. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.