Resource Efficiency in the Construction Sector: Material Intensities of Residential Buildings—A German Case Study

Abstract

This article describes an approach for comparing material intensity values for residential buildings with different construction types. Based on the working drawings of the different construction types (wood and mineral), material intensities are calculated at the building level. Material intensities describe the materials used in a building in mass (tonnes (t)) in relation to the square meters (m2) of gross floor area (GFA) or the cubic meters (m3) of gross volume (GV). The method for determining material intensities at the building level is demonstrated. The results show that material intensities range from 0.61 t/m2 GFA to 1.95 t/m2 GFA for single-family residential buildings and from 1.36 t/m2 GFA to 1.54 t/m2 GFA for multi-storey residential buildings. The average material intensity for mineral buildings is twice as high as that for wood buildings, which means that there is a beneficial resource efficiency in building with wood instead of mineral materials. Therefore, benchmarks for a resource efficient building can be conducted based on these values. These values demonstrate a possibility to influence resource efficiency in buildings.