Fired Clay Brick or Autoclaved Aerated Concrete as Walling Materials in Terms of Sustainability

Abstract

The construction sector is a significant contributor to harmful environmental impacts throughout the entirebuilding life cycle. The fact that a large amount of and a wide range of materials used in constructionmakes their environmental impacts important. In this context, Environmental Product Declarations(EPDs) contribute to compare the environmental impacts of the building materials with the samefunctional unit for the same processes. Fired clay brick (FCB) and autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) arecommonly used materials for the exterior walls in Turkey. In this study, it was aimed to analyze theenvironmental impacts and identify environmental hot spots to improve the sustainability of the twomaterials in the scope of the “cradle-to-gate”. EPDs and local data obtained from two factories throughmutual interviews were used. The environmental impacts of FCB caused by raw materials acquisition andtransportation are less than AAC. On the other hand, the manufacturing of FCB is an energy-intensiveprocess because of the firing and firing temperatures compared to the manufacturing process of AAC. It isthought that the results of this study can be useful to improve the sustainability of the materials and toselect sustainable building materials.