Examining the Environmental Impacts of Materials and Buildings

Challenge

Climate change, resource depletion, and widespread pollution remain urgent global challenges. Because the built environment accounts for nearly half of all resource use, the architecture, engineering, and construction industries are closely connected to these problems. Although designers, researchers, and manufacturers increasingly seek to improve ecological performance, they lack reliable tools, benchmarks, and shared methods for evaluating the full consequences of their decisions. Significant gaps remain between material-scale choices and planetary effects, while environmental data for many products are incomplete or proprietary. In addition, the proliferation of disconnected standards, labels, and assessment systems makes it difficult to compare impacts, establish priorities, or translate environmental knowledge into effective action.

Strategy

Examining the Environmental Impacts of Materials and Buildings advances the measurement and communication of ecological performance across building design, construction, maintenance, and demolition. The book brings together emerging theoretical and applied research in ten chapters organized into three sections: Embodied Impact, Material Topics, and Expanded Frameworks. Contributors examine the embodied resources of existing buildings, urban material standards, demolition and replacement, material toxicity, biodegradable construction, and water consumption. They also investigate the future of life-cycle assessment, social performance, adaptive thermal comfort, and experimental modes of material practice. By combining established tools with new assessment methods, visualizations, material applications, and interdisciplinary frameworks, the book helps connect individual design decisions to broader environmental goals and supports more informed action across multiple scales.

Contributors

• Aletheia Aida
• Getachew Assefa
• Jens von Bergmann
• Andrew Cruse
• Joseph Dahmen
• Misha Das
• Ming Hu
• Liz Kutschke
• Jacob Wayne Mans
• Shreyas More
• Jeanna Ripple
• Meenal Sutaria
• Franca Trubiano

Chapters

1. The Embodied Impact of Existing Building Stock, Ming Hu
2. Building Codes Don’t Measure Up: A Case for Urban Material Performance Standards, Jeanna Ripple
3. Teardown Index: Emissions of Single-Family Homes in Vancouver, Joseph Dahmen, Jens von Bergmann, and Misha Das
4. Toxicity in Architectural Plastics: Life-Cycle Index of Human Health in Building (LCI-HHB), Franca Trubiano
5. Green Charcoal: Developing Biodegradable Construction Materials for a Circular Economy, Shreyas More and Meenal Sutaria
6. Fluid Matters: The Water Footprint of Building Materials, Aletheia Aida
7. Life-Cycle Assessment-Based Environmental Performance Targets for Buildings: What Is Next? Getachew Assefa
8. Social Life-Cycle Assessment for Building Materials, Liz Kutschke
9. Improving the Weather: On Architectural Comforts and Climates, Andrew Cruse
10. Post-Normal Material Practice: “Building” as Inquiry, Jacob Wayne Mans