Environmental sustainability in the construction industry in developing countries: A study of embodied energy of low-cost housing

The embodied energy (EE) of a residential building is estimated at 20-40% of operation energy over its total usable life. However, this varies from one context to the other due to the primary energy used, technological advancement of a particular context and the methods used for the inventory analysis. Despite the lack of monetary value, EE analysis (EEA) is recommended for the selection of building materials at the design stage in terms of environmental loads. However, little attention has been paid to this area in developing countries, particularly, the Sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the increasing demand of building materials deemed to rise with urbanization in this region, the acceleration of environmental impacts is also inevitable. Therefore, data based tools are required to complement the existing policy and regulatory frameworks. In this study, EE of masonry and roof components of low-cost housing in Malawi will be assessed. The process based-hybrid energy analysis is employed to evaluate energy and the greenhouse gases related to the manufacturing, transportation of building materials and the assembling and maintenance of the entire residential building. This paper in particular, presents part of the conceptual framework of the study focusing on EE analysis especially the methods used and the associated problems based the literature review. So far, it is noted that the inventory analysis stage, which involves the evaluation of energy requirements, is the essential part of the EEA because of the various methods employed. Although the existing methods are sufficient relative to the available data, there is an urgency to increase the process data sets to enhance the reliability of the existing methods. Therefore, in addition to enhancing knowledge and understanding of life-cycle thinking to the construction stakeholders and decision makers in the selection of building materials, this study will also contribute to such data.