Towards Sustainable Building Materials: Evaluation of Carbon Footprint and Affordability of Cement Blocks in Dar es Salaam Tanzania.

Kinabo,, Leandri and Mbogo, Shaaban and Isaksson, Raine (2019) Towards Sustainable Building Materials: Evaluation of Carbon Footprint and Affordability of Cement Blocks in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Huria Journal.

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Abstract

The key approach towards sustainable development is to live within our environment, which should at the same time support the interests of the society through economic development. This paper tries to have a fresh look at how development can be carried on with optimum utilization of cement in the preparation of building blocks in the long term. Studies have shown that the construction industry in some countries account for up over 44% carbon dioxide emissions making this sector a priority area for attention as far a climate change is concerned. It is projected that the developing countries are likely to be future major emitters in this area since construction is growing faster than in the developing world. The study tries to look at the state of the art in the making of wall building blocks as witnessed in Dares Salaam, Tanzania. The method used was to assess the walling material in the form of various building blocks which use cement as a binder common to all these. It is likely that cement will remain with us for a long time and therefore the amount used per square meter of wall was assessed against the strength, in N/mm2 (Mega Pascal-MPa), of blocks produced. In line with the UN Sustainable Development (SD) goals, building materials should be affordable, and therefore price of the various blocks per square meter was also considered along with the strength obtained. Cement is a driver of both carbon footprint and affordability. Thus, cement productivity is considered to be a key indicator in this study. Cement productivity in concrete is defined as compressive strength divided by cement percentage and expressed as Mega Pascal*tons. Based on a defined benchmark, cement productivity can be expressed in relative terms, which enable comparison of the performance of different sandcrete solutions. Some highlights on various options in choice and production of various blocks have been discussed, like minimizing the amount of cement while using optimum amount of water for maximum strength. The use of hollow blocks in place of solid blocks is found to be of advantage materially and by price, but this requires a need to initiate changes, to depart from business as usual in traditional construction practices. Keywords Affordable, building materials, carbon-footprint, cement, sustainable development.

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