Resource Efficiency in the Construction Sector: Material Intensities of Residential Buildings—A German Case Study

Karina Krause () and Annette Hafner
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Karina Krause: Resource Efficient Building, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, IC 5/161—Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
Annette Hafner: Resource Efficient Building, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, IC 5/161—Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: This article describes an approach for comparing material intensity values for residential buildings with different construction types. Based on the working drawings of the different construction types (wood and mineral), material intensities are calculated at the building level. Material intensities describe the materials used in a building in mass (tonnes (t)) in relation to the square meters (m 2 ) of gross floor area (GFA) or the cubic meters (m 3 ) of gross volume (GV). The method for determining material intensities at the building level is demonstrated. The results show that material intensities range from 0.61 t/m 2 GFA to 1.95 t/m 2 GFA for single-family residential buildings and from 1.36 t/m 2 GFA to 1.54 t/m 2 GFA for multi-storey residential buildings. The average material intensity for mineral buildings is twice as high as that for wood buildings, which means that there is a beneficial resource efficiency in building with wood instead of mineral materials. Therefore, benchmarks for a resource efficient building can be conducted based on these values. These values demonstrate a possibility to influence resource efficiency in buildings.

Keywords: material intensity; LCA; resource efficiency; material flows; building construction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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