Towards Sustainable Building Materials: Evaluation of Carbon Footprint of Commonly Used Walling Materials in Dar es Salaam Tanzania.

Kinabo, Leandri Stanislaus (2022) Towards Sustainable Building Materials: Evaluation of Carbon Footprint of Commonly Used Walling Materials in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Doctoral thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

Sustainable development require communities to live and undertake development that is within the earth planet capacity, demanding a balance between societal needs, business and care for the environment. Some studies have shown that the construction industry in some countries account for up to over 44% Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions making this sector a priority area for attention since the gas is responsible for recent observed climate change challenge. The objective of the study was to assess the carbon footprint in the form of CO2 in housing walling blocks. The method used was to assess the CO2 of a square meter of building blocks along with the strength, in N/mm2 (Mega Pascal-MPa), of various types of blocks produced. A recent tool of ‘cement productivity’ was used to assess the fitness of the building blocks since it is considered that bricks that use less cement and at the same time acquiring the required strength is desireable. In line with the UN Sustainable Development (SD) goals, building materials should be affordable, and therefore the price, as an indicator of affordability of the various blocks per square meter was also considered. The study found out that the largest portion of residential houses in Dar es Salaam is done on sandcrete (90%) led by the six inch solid blocks. The results revealed that hollow blocks have a triple advantage compared to the rest of studied blocks and bricks in terms of low carbon footprint, price, and with relatively higher pass rate (70%) in the quality requirements. Ironically however, hollow blocks were among the least preferred walling material. It is recommended to change towards low Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions and affordable options of housing walling blocks for sustainable building materials. Keywords: Affordable, hosing building blocks, carbon-footprint, cement, cement productivity, sustainable.

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