ARTICLE REVIEW: EMBODIED ENERGY DEMYSTIFIED

Eduardo Souza, "Embodied Energy in Building Materials: What it is and How to Calculate It", August 2021, Reviewed by Mishti Madan

The article starts with how building construction industry consumes a large amount of resources and energy which results into deterioration of the near future. The author talks about how buildings are responsible for upto 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions. In the last two decades, many researchers have studied the embodied energy of buildings and published their findings. In this study, in order to provide a better understanding of the field as a whole, a bibliometric approach is applied to create a knowledge map and discover more information about the topic. The article provides an overview of literature on embodied energy and how is it calculated.

The author defines the term- Embodied Energy as sum impact of all greenhouse gas emissions attributed to a material during its life cycle. This cycle encompasses extraction, manufacturing, construction, maintenance, and disposal. Further with an example of Reinforced concrete, he explains how the materials used in construction effect environment. The author then explains how even a sustainable material in one place may have a high energy load in another due to local availability and the type of transport involved; thus leading to the introduction of Life Cycle Assessment. 


Life cycle assessment (LCA) examines the total environmental impact of a material or product through every step of its life — from obtaining raw materials (e.g. through mining or logging) all the way through manufacture, transport to a store, and using it in the home, to disposal or recycling. In the end, this paper focuses on the analysis of existing literature in order to identify differing parameters so that development of a consistent and comparable database can be facilitated.

CRITIQUE’S NOTE:

The author has tried to make the audience aware of embodied energy and how it effects the environment.This article surely is informative for the people who are not related to architecture, but not deep enough for an architect. The article should have been more comprehensive, with quantitative analysis of the literature on the embodied energy of buildings, which is missing.

Keywords: Embodied energy, Life cycle Assessment (LCA)

Article review of: https://www.archdaily.com/931249/embodied-energy-in-building-materials-what-it-is-and-how-to-calculate-it

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