BIOREGIONAL RECLAIMED

Environmental Impact Reduction

Any construction or refurbishment project considering using reclaimed materials for environmental reasons needs to know exactly how much “good” they are doing.

What are the environmental implications of this material choice? How do they compare with the benefits of, say, installing solar hot water panels?

If a contractor is being asked to use an unusual material or if designers are being asked to provide early information for longer lead times, then they need to know that the environmental benefits are worth the added hassle.

Measuring the embodied environmental impacts of a material or process offers a method of quantifying their comparative environmental benefits.These impacts are a result of:

UK typical ecofootprint showing that construction materials (infrastructure)
account for 19% of our national ecofootprint

• the extraction of raw materials
• their processing and manufacture
• their transportation

Quantified environmental savings can support informed decision making and demonstrate how a project is meeting its sustainability targets.

BioRegional Reclaimed offers a quantification of the environmental benefits of any material choices. In collaboration with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and with ecofootprint specialists Best Foot Forward, we can use any of four different assessment methods:

• Embodied energy savings
• Embodied CO2 savings
• Ecopoint savings
• Eco-footprint savings

Embodied Energy

The embodied energy of a material is the energy required to abstract, process, manufacture and deliver it. For example, sheet aluminium requires some 200 GJ/tonne as compared with sheet steel which has an embodied energy of some 34 GJ/tonne. Timber has a low embodied energy of some 13GJ/tonne whilst chipboard, which is more highly processed, has a higher embodied energy of some 36GJ/tonne.

Embodied CO2 

CO2 emissions are generated during energy consumption and it is the CO2 emissions that contribute to greenhouse gases and lead to global warming. Embodied CO2 is not directly proportional to embodied energy. It depends on the specific energy sources of a process. Electricity generation generally has efficiencies of around 30%, as compared with heat generation efficiencies of around 80%. Processes that require high grade electrical energy will result in higher CO2 emissions than those that run on low grade heat energy. Heat demands in industry can sometimes be met from waste heat from some other part of the process, further reducing embodied CO2. It also depends on the energy source for that particular process. In Scandinavia, most of the power used in the aluminium industry comes from hydro-electric schemes and therefore has no embodied CO2 in its manufacture.

Ecopoints (BRE Environmental Profiling)

The BRE has developed Environmental Profiling and scoring for individual products using Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The Ecopoints system fully complies with the internationally established approach for analysing impacts of products and processes. It measures environmental performance throughout a product's life, through manufacture, operational use in a building and in demolition. The system has been developed by the BRE and it measures a material's impacts in 12 areas, as shown in the chart.

The impact of the material in each area is compared with the average impact of each UK citizen and given a "score" known as an Ecopoint score. 100 Ecopoints represents the total environmental impact of an average UK citizen. Low Ecopoints represents low environmental impact.

The scores in each of the 12 areas are brought together using a subjective weighting system based on a consultation exercise with a broad range of interest groups. Further information on this methodology and definitions of the above impact areas are available from the BRE or in the BedZED Construction Materials Report.

Ecological Footprint analysis is an accounting tool that represents the environmental impacts of a process or a person's lifestyle as an area of land. It measures the area of biologically productive land that is required to meet the needs of a given product or population. It compares this area with the actual available area on earth and informs as to whether we are living within the earth's capacity.

The actual available biologically productive area on earth is 2.18 hectares per person. (based on 1996 population). In the UK, the ecological footprint of each person is 6.29 hectares. This means that we need 3 planets to sustain our current UK lifestyles.

A person's ecological footprint is made up of the footprints of all their activities, products consumed and waste produced. It includes the area of forest required to absorb the CO2 emissions attributable to that person. It includes a share of the area taken up by infrastructure, food and timber growing and fishing. A person's energy consumption has an eco-footprint, as does their food consumption, transport, work activities and leisure activities. Each consumer product has an eco-footprint as does each construction material.

Ecopoint chart for timber doors

Ecopoint chart for studwork