The Carbon Footprint of Thermal Insulation: The Added Value of Circular Models Using Recycled Textile Waste

Antonella Violano () and Monica Cannaviello
Additional contact information
Antonella Violano: Department of Architecture and Industrial Design DADI—University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, Via S. Lorenzo, 81031 Aversa (Caserta), Italy
Monica Cannaviello: Department of Architecture and Industrial Design DADI—University of Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, Via S. Lorenzo, 81031 Aversa (Caserta), Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-24

Abstract: The goal of climate neutrality by 2050 drives the building sector towards stricter control of processes and products, leading to a substantial reduction of embodied carbon throughout the life cycle. Many of the most used insulation materials have a high carbon footprint, mainly due to the production phase (from cradle to gate). The need to reduce these impacts has led to the implementation of materials whose predominant raw material is recycled material in order to reduce the embodied carbon. The contribution presents the results of a research work that analysed the potential of insulation materials obtained from textile waste, evaluating not only their energy performance but also, above all, their environmental impact in terms of carbon footprint. It starts from a state-of-the-art analysis of the main traditional and new-generation thermal insulation materials, not only in relation to performance but also to environmental impacts, in order to investigate the opportunities offered using insulation materials designed according to circular models (10R) and produced with industrial and/or post-consumer waste fabrics, through a carbon footprint comparison. To support the choice of this type of insulation, a multi-criteria evaluation method is proposed through which the comparative analysis of the most significant insulation products selected is carried out.

Keywords: thermal insulation; carbon footprint; embodied carbon; textile waste; whole life carbon; life cycle assessment; circular model (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/19/6768/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/19/6768/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:19:p:6768-:d:1245594

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().