Material selection and embodied energy

Abstract

The building life cycle demands both operational and embodied energy. It has been estimated that in conventional buildings, operational energy represents approximately 80-90% of total life cycle energy, while embodied energy accounts for the remaining 10-20%. The intent of energy efficient building design is to directly target the reduction of the dominant operational energy component. In the last two dacades, the intergration of both passive measures and active technologies into "green" building design has drastically reduced operational energy - in many instances, savings of 50% and more were achieved. In contrast to this, embodied energy reduction strategies are less prominent, and the popular material resources strategies, for instance, the use of recycled content materials, are also not assessed to confirm whether they are yielding the desired environmental benefits or not.