Sustainability
Bricks are a versatile and durable building material, with excellent life cycle performance, energy efficiency, high thermal mass and responsible manufacturing.
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Brick and brick buildings are sustainable because they:
- Are highly durable
- Offer long term life performance
- Are low maintenance
- Are energy efficient
- Provide healthy and comfortable environments
- Are recyclable
Sustainability is often compressed into a consideration of energy use defined as the emission of CO2. The brick industry measures this annually and also reports on it under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
The UK clay brick and paving industry is firmly committed to minimising carbon emissions and reducing the impact manufacturing has on the environment. Locally available resources are used as efficiently as possible; to reduce waste, to reduce the energy used in manufacture, to encourage the re-use of materials and to design products with the longest possible life span and best performance.
If you spread the CO2 emissions from the brick in a square metre of brickwork over a life of 120 years it equates to 0.000232 tonnes of CO2 /sq metre/per annum. This carbon isn't "locked up" to be released at the end of life, it has already been expended and the longer the building exists, the better the value.
Very little clay is wasted during manufacture. Unfired waste clay is reused in the manufacturing process and less than perfect fired bricks are crushed and used as aggregates in other parts of the building industry. Materials from Alternative, Recycled and Secondary Sources (MARSS) are increasingly important in the manufacture of clay bricks - the current level of recycled material content in brick is 12.08%, an improvement on 2005 (CERAM 2007).
Embodied Energy/Embodied Carbon Dioxide in Clay Bricks
Embodied energy is the amount of energy it takes to manufacture and supply bricks to their point of use. Bricks have been labelled as having high embodied energy due to their process of manufacture. However, in measuring sustainability it is necessary to take into account a material's life cycle performance, as well as the amount of energy consumed in the manufacturing process.
Research recently undertaken demonstrates that the proportion of embodied energy of clay bricks for the modern semi-detached home is equal to just 1.87% of the overall heating requirement for the home over its 150 year life.
We have been concerned about the number of misleading technical articles that have shown incorrect information for clay bricks.
Our industry makes annual reports to the Government for both the climate change agreements and the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EUETS), and therefore monitors CO₂ emissions regularly.
The embodied carbon for a brick is 231kg CO₂ per tonne of brick (cradle to gate). Using a UK typical brick weight of 2.4kg - 2.5kg the CO2/year for a typical 2 bedroom end of terrace home is no greater than:
25kg of CO₂ per year over 150 years
40kg of CO₂ per year over 100 years
These calculations are based on the document ‘Energy and CO2’ by The Concrete Centre the floor areas shown in this document are total areas e.g. 61 m2 for a 2 storey end of terrace property equates to 31 m2/floor (approx). Therefore, the total gross wall area is 84 m2 approx – assuming a storey height of 2.5 m and blockwork party wall. The net wall area, assuming 20% glazing, is then 67 m2 which equates to 4020 bricks. So 67 x 0.1025 x 2400 x 0.231 = 3808 kg of CO2 (rounded up). 3808/100 = 38 kg CO2/year over 100 years and 3808/150 = 25.4 kg CO2/year over 150 years.