Environmental Impact and Cost Comparison of Different Partition Walls

Abstract

Conventional construction materials used in building industry is one major contributor to the increasing amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other pollutants in the atmosphere, which is responsible to the worsening effects of climate change and other threatening environmental issues worldwide. In addressing this alarming situation, construction key players must apply strategic development and consider the exploration of alternative materials, methodologies, and energy-saving measures for both new and old buildings. The application of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is one recommended initiative to identify, analyse, and compare the environmental impacts of traditional and new alternative materials used in the industry. In this study, with the integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) tool to Life Cycle and Cost Analysis (LCCA), the environmental impact and total construction cost of different partitions walls namely concrete hollow blocks (CHB), gypsum drywall, foamed concrete, and foamed geopolymer wall have been efficiently analysed and compared. Based on the results of LCA, significant values had been observed on the six environmental impact categories namely fossil resource scarcity, land use, human non-carcinogenic toxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and global warming. Concrete Hollow Blocks (CHB) wall exhibits greater impact on fossil resource scarcity, foamed concrete wall to land use and global warming, and dry wall to human non-carcinogenic toxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity categories. On the other hand, cost analysis shows that among all partition walls, the construction of CHB wall gave the lowest total cost value while the construction of foamed geopolymer wall costs the highest. Overall, results of this study indicate the potential use of other alternative materials to achieve sustainability in the building industry.