Reduction of primary energy and CO2 emissions through selection and environmental evaluation of building materials

Building materials as principal components of building constructions and entire buildings play an important role in overall impact on the environment. In this paper, the environmental assessment of building materials in selected building in the Slovak Republic using life cycle assessment data is presented. Environmental parameters, such as the amount of primary energy, global warming potential and acidification potential together with weight of used materials were evaluated. For selected constructions, the alternation of materials basis was performed to minimize the negative effect of building materials. As a result of optimization a 13.5% reduction of primary energy intensity, 3.7% reduction of global warming potential and 4.2% of acidification potential were achieved for the whole building by the change of building materials.