Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Research Articles

An environmental life cycle assessment of electric race car: a case study of eVarta

An environmental life cycle assessment of electric race car: a case study of eVarta

Environmental life cycle assessment of reusable launch vehicle fleets: Large climate impact driven by rocket exhaust emissions

After the success of the reusable Falcon 9 rocket, space actors are pursuing competitive space access by developing Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs). While this initiative may enhance recycling rates, it may also trigger the Jevons’ paradox as it amplifies the overall environmental footprint due to increased launch frequencies. It is therefore essential to quantify RLVs’ impacts and identify key design drivers to enable efficient design choices while mitigating undesirable environmental effects.Consequently, this article uses a space specific Life Cycle assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate the environmental footprint, in terms of climate impact, water depletion and land use, of different RLV fleets designed to serve a forecasted European space market. The results show that the LH2 fleet options have 2-8 times lower carbon footprint when compared to the LCH4 fleet as a result of lower propellant consumption and lack of black carbon emissions, suggesting that the environmental burdens are mostly driven by propellant choice. Moreover, the analysis reveals a potential underestimation of climate impacts in previous LCA’s by 2–3 orders of magnitude due to the absence of high altitude characterisation of rocket exhaust emissions and demised aluminium oxides. This increased forcing could lead to fleet choices surpassing the Earth’s carrying capacity given by its planetary boundaries.The methodology and results within this study can support further integration of launch and reentry emissions within LCA by refining modelling techniques, improving impact characterisation and quantifying uncertainties. These advancements can ultimately enable robust eco-design strategies for launch vehicles.

Environmental and Economic Life Cycle Assessment of Enzymatic Hydrolysis-Based Fish Protein and Oil Extraction

As global fish consumption rises, a large amount of waste is generated that is generally neglected. Considering the value embedded in these resources, sustainable methods become more important in extracting valuable ingredients from fish processing residues. Enzymatic hydrolysis is a fast and easily reproducible method for recovering protein ingredients and obtaining valuable by-products. To confirm its advantages, an environmental and economic impact assessment is essential. This study overviewed the sustainability and economic viability of extracting protein compounds and oil from Atlantic mackerel processing residues using enzymatic hydrolysis. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) methods were employed. It was found that the climate change impact of the whole process was 0.073 kg CO2-eq per 1 g of fish protein hydrolysate (FPH). As the process produces FPH as the main product and fish oil as the by-product, economic allocation was used to distribute the impacts of FPH and fish oil. The findings of the LCCA showed that producing 1 g of FPH costs EUR 3.68. The contribution analysis indicated the crucial role of electricity and fish in environmental impacts. To ensure the accuracy of the calculation, the results of an LCA study published previously were recalculated. The sensitivity analysis showed that the results were susceptible to the region and source of electricity production. This research provides valuable insights into the sustainability and economic aspects of using enzymatic hydrolysis for extracting protein ingredients and oils from Atlantic mackerel. This can inform future investigations of environmentally friendly and economically viable solutions for extracting fish ingredients.

Prioritizing Organic Pollutants for Shale Gas Exploitation: Life Cycle Environmental Risk Assessments in China and the US.

Environmental impacts associated with shale gas exploitation have been historically underestimated due to neglecting to account for the production or the release of end-of-pipe organic pollutants. Here, we assessed the environmental impacts of shale gas production in China and the United States using life cycle assessment. Through data mining, we compiled literature information on organic pollutants in flowback and produced water (FPW), followed by assessments using USEtox to evaluate end-of-pipe risks. Results were incorporated to reveal the life cycle risks associated with shale gas exploitation in both countries. China exhibited higher environmental impacts than the US during the production phase. Substantially different types of organic compounds were observed in the FPW between two countries. Human carcinogenic and ecological toxicity attributed to organics in FPW was 3 orders of magnitude higher than that during the production phase in the US. Conversely, in China, end-of-pipe organics accounted for approximately 52%, 1%, and 47% of the overall human carcinogenic, noncarcinogenic, and ecological impacts, respectively. This may be partially limited by the quantitative data available. While uncertainties exist associated with data availability, our study highlights the significance of integrating impacts from shale gas production to end-of-pipe pollution for comprehensive environmental risk assessments.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of University Campus in Operation Phase, a Case Study of Kharazmi University in Iran

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of University Campus in Operation Phase, a Case Study of Kharazmi University in Iran

Parametric simulation tool for the enviro-economic evaluation of energy renovation strategies in residential buildings with life cycle thinking: PARARENOVATE-LCT

The EU regulations require long-term renovation strategies (LTRS) for the energy transition of the existing building stock, emphasising the importance of the whole-life carbon evaluation and the cost-effectiveness of the processes. The building performance simulation (BPS) tools combined with the integration of the life cycle thinking (LCT) are considered a promising approach for evaluating the renovation of buildings. Besides, the performance gap due to occupant behaviour (OB) and the uncertainty of the economic scenario is an essential barrier to the accurate assessment of renovation strategies in residential buildings. The objective of this study is to develop a simulation tool to evaluate the environmental and economic sustainability of energy renovations in residential buildings based on LCT, considering the OB diversity and economic uncertainty. For this, the study develops the PARARENOVATE-LCT tool. This script-based tool combines the dynamic BPS and the integration of the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and the economic life cycle cost (LCC), evaluating different renovation strategies in multiple scenarios based on the combination of multiple variables of archetype, climatic zone, OB patterns, economic scenario and orientation. The methodological tool is applied in a case study of the most common archetypes of single-family and multi-family residential buildings of the Basque Country, in northern Spain. The results show how the tool can prioritise strategies, analyse the significance of baseline scenario parameters, and measure the influence of the LCT application. This way, the study provides a methodological tool as a new approach towards developing policies and plans to answer the EU requirements.

Study of a Fire-Resistant Plate Containing Fly Ashes Generated from Municipal Waste Incinerator: Fire and Mechanical Characteristics and Environmental Life Cycle Assessment.

The recycling of fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration is currently a global issue. This work intends to examine the viability of a novel recycling alternative for fly ashes as a component of fire-resistant plates. To lessen the quantity of heavy metal leaching, the fly ash was utilized after being washed using a water/fly ash ratio of 2 for one hour. Subsequently, an inexpensive, straightforward molding and curing process was used to create a plate, with a composition of 60%wt of MSWI-FA, 30%wt of gypsum, 0.5%wt of glass fiber and 9.5%wt of vermiculite. The plate exhibited high fire resistance. Furthermore, it demonstrated compression, flexural strength and surface hardness slightly lower than the requirements of European Standards. This allows for manufacturing plates with a high washed MSWI-FA content as fire protection in firewalls and doors for homes and commercial buildings. A Life Cycle Assessment was carried out. The case study shows that a 60% substitution of gypsum resulted in an environmental impact reduction of 8-48% for all impact categories examined, except four categories impacts (marine eutrophication, human toxicity (cancer), human non-carcinogenic toxicity and water depletion, where it increased between 2 and 718 times), due to the previous washing of MSWI-FA. When these fly ashes are used as a raw material in fire-resistant materials, they may be recycled and offer environmental advantages over more conventional materials like gypsum.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Two Types of Flexible Plastic Packaging under a Sustainable Circular Economy Approach

While it is of great importance to evaluate plastic waste within the framework of a circular economy today, it is also of great importance to evaluate flexible plastic packaging, which is increasingly used in order to prevent environmental problems. To avoid the disadvantages experienced in recycling due to its multilayer nature, in this study, a life cycle assessment was made for flexible packages consisting of PET/metallized PET/PE and PP/metallized PP/PP with the data provided by the R&D Center of Elif Plastik Ambalaj Sanayi ve Tic. A.Ş.-Huhtamaki Flexibles Istanbul. Within the scope of this evaluation, two types of flexible packaging were analyzed, and an optimal flexible packaging structure for Türkiye was revealed by comparing different scenarios based on different methods in SimaPro 8.1.1.16. LCA was performed for both packages with cumulative energy demand (CED) and CML-IA methods. Four scenarios with different amounts of recycled raw materials were compared against the existing system and a fifth scenario, where electricity is assumed to be obtained from solar energy. Overall, we found that the largest environmental impact was in the existing system. However, despite being a renewable energy source, we observed that the solar energy scenario had almost as significant an impact as the existing system. When scenarios involving recycled raw materials were examined, we clearly observed that as the amount of recycled raw materials increased, the environmental impact decreased. Therefore, it emerged that the scenario with the highest amount of recycled raw materials is the most optimal scenario in many respects. There are clear differences in the results due to differences in plastic types. This study, conducted with real data, is highly important for the flexible packaging literature. A table has been provided for changing the type of plastic, changing the source of electricity generation, and reducing waste by using recycled raw materials in order to make flexible packaging more environmentally beneficial.

Cellulose nanofibre films as a substitute for plastic packaging: A comparative environmental life cycle assessment

Accumulation of synthetic food packaging in the natural environment has increased considerably in last few decades, posing serious concerns to human and aquatic life. Hence, substituting synthetic packaging with biobased packaging is one viable option. Cellulose nanofibres can easily be transformed into films, which could be a suitable alternative for petroleum-derived packaging. However, production of these films consumes a significant amount of energy as compared with the synthetic packaging. The main contributors for this high energy consumption are associated with the treatment of pulp, production of fibres and drying of films. This study analyzes the environmental impacts (in terms of energy and water) of spray deposited cellulose nanofibre films and its key drivers through an attributional cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment. Different scenarios were formulated and studied in terms of waste feedstock choice, solid content, forming composite of cellulose nanofibres, and location (Australia, China, Germany, Great Britain and United States of America). The results indicate that the environmental impacts of spray deposited cellulose nanofibre films based on a baseline scenario for a large-scale production were still higher as compared with petroleum-based synthetic packaging. However, establishing a recommended scenario from the studied scenarios could lower the environmental impacts significantly (two to five times) in comparison to synthetic food packaging. This life cycle assessment model has the potential to support the reduction of the environmental impact of the studied green chemistry option and to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable packaging.

Characteristic and mechanism of pollution by laser cleaning high-value vehicle parts with a complex structure in remanufacturing industry

Remanufacturing high-value vehicle parts is of substantial significance for the circular economy because it provides a second service life and reduces solid waste generation. Laser cleaning is a promising method in the remanufacturing industry owing to its high energy, precision, and efficiency. However, the pollution caused by laser cleaning remains unknown and has rarely been reported, limiting the application of this method. In this study, pollution removal and conversion using a high-energy laser were explored, and environmental life cycle and health risk assessments were conducted. The results showed that high-energy lasers might induce new organic pollutants, such as olefins, alkynes, and aldehydes. During laser cleaning, thermal elastic expansion and shock wave generation were the main mechanisms of rust removal, and evaporation and small-scope boiling were used for waste oil removal. The mean concentration of PM10 was above 7000 µg/m3 in laser rust removal, and the total concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was the highest in laser oil removal (∼ 2568 µg/m3). Particulate matter contained high amounts of Fe, Al, and Mn. An environmental life cycle assessment indicated that laser cleaning for stain removal significantly reduced the total environmental impact compared with that of traditional solvent-ultrasonic cleaning (∼ 40.0%) and sandblasting (∼ 83.3%). This study provides an environmental protection basis for increasing the use of laser cleaning in the remanufacturing industry.

A life cycle assessment of clinker and cement production in Ethiopia

Cement production is a major consumer of energy and the largest source of industrial CO2 emissions. This study aims to perform an environmental life cycle assessment of clinker and cement production in Ethiopia, using ReCiPe impact assessment method. Inventory data (material, energy, and transportation) is collected from seven major Ethiopian cement industries. The midpoint analysis identified nine hotspot environmental concerns: global warming, ozone formation (human health and terrestrial ecosystem), particulate matter formation, terrestrial (acidification and ecotoxicity), freshwater eutrophication, human carcinogenic toxicity, and fossil resource scarcity. Human health emerged as the most significantly affected endpoint damage category by the midpoint impacts. Among the process stages included in clinker system boundary, clinker production phase (kiln emissions) is a significant contributor to the total score of the hotspot impacts, ranging from 60.7% to 91.8%. The clinker system is responsible for over 81.03% of the overall environmental burden of cement. The sensitivity analysis reveals that a 5% change in kiln energy consumption and transportation burden could lead to a reduction in hotspot impacts ranging from 1.8% to 5%. To foster reliability of this study, uncertainty analysis is also conducted. Overall, the findings indicate the need to enhance environmental sustainability in Ethiopian cement production.

Social life cycle assessment of the olive oil industry: a case study in Guilan Province, Iran

AbstractOlive oil production has severe environmental consequences, including resource depletion, land degradation, carbon emissions, and waste generation. As a result, for over two decades, environmental life cycle assessment (ELCA) has been applied to the olive oil industry to identify environmental issues and reduce the environmental effects. However, little is known regarding the social sustainability of this industry. Social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) has been established as one of the most effective methodologies for assessing the social implications of products throughout their life cycles. Accordingly, based on the S-LCA approach, this study aims to assess the social impacts of the olive oil extraction industry in Roudbar County in Guilan Province in Iran, the major producer of olives and olive oil. The S-LCA model adopted in this paper is built in four major phases (UNEP/SETAC in Guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products, 2009): (1) Definition of Goal and Scope: outlines the intended use and the goal pursued and specifies the scope of the research. The research will then be defined to fulfill that purpose within any constraints. (2) Life Cycle Inventory analysis: is the phase at which data are collected, systems are modeled, and LCI results are generated. (3) Life Cycle Impact Assessment: a collection of steps to obtain data categorization, aggregation, and characterization based on performance reference points. (4) Life Cycle Interpretation: considers all important aspects of the research when drawing results, offering recommendations, and reporting. The findings suggested that the social conditions governing the olive oil extraction cycle in the study area are almost adequate. However, other categories of social impacts, such as cultural heritage, community development, and working conditions, were rated unsatisfactory by olive orchard workers and need improvement. Adopting the cause-and-effect chain in this study favors identifying specific indicators based on social issues in the study location. On the other hand, a scale-based assessment may result in the subjectivity of the results, which adds to the uncertainty. An impact-based assessment may be applied to analyze social impacts such as occupational health and safety, employment, pay, and benefits to get more credible social impact data. Consequently, integrating the scale-based approach with an efficient path-based method may improve its effectiveness.

A comparative environmental life cycle assessment of road asphalt pavement solutions made up of artificial aggregates

The construction and maintenance of road pavements entail detrimental impacts on the consumption of resources and damage to the natural environment but also make up an opportunity for the large-scale application of circular economy principles and innovative waste valorisation paths. The present study focuses on developing a comprehensive procedure to evaluate the technical and environmental sustainability of replacing high percentage of limestone aggregates with artificial aggregates from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) into hot or cold recycled asphalt mixtures for asphalt pavements.The technical feasibility of the designed mixtures was investigated in terms of the main physical and mechanical properties of both the raw materials and the asphalt mixtures with content of artificial aggregates or sand in the range 25–40 % by mass. The environmental feasibility of the asphalt mixtures was evaluated through the SEM-EDS technique, the analysis of the eluate of the leaching test and the ecotoxicity for living organisms.Afterwards, the life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to detect the critical spots of the life cycle of 1 m2 of a 6 cm-thick binder layer with high percentage of artificial aggregates or sand built and maintained through 30 years analysis period according to 18 impact category indicators.The main results show that, recycling the artificial aggregates into hot asphalt mixtures has on average a negligible effect on the overall environmental performance of the life cycle, and appears to be detrimental only for the consumption of fossil resources due to the higher optimum bitumen content. Looking at the results for cold mixes, the introduction of the artificial aggregates has an effect on the predicted durability of the asphalt layers, which is maximized in the case of coarse artificial aggregates. Consequent environmental benefits regard the global warming potential, fossil resource scarcity and freshwater eutrophication indicators.

Oriented pyrolysis of biomass for hydrogen-rich gas and biochar production: An energy, environment, and economic assessment based on life cycle assessment method

This study aimed to analyze a technology of hydrogen-rich gas from full-component oriented pyrolysis (FCOP) of biomass using energy, economic, and environmental life cycle assessment. Firstly, the study taked corn straw (CS) as the research object, the yield of hydrogen-rich gas and char produced by the oriented pyrolysis method are 78.26% and 20.35%, and the yield of biochar produced by activating char with phosphoric acid is 40%. Secondly, the system boundary of FCOP of biomass to produce hydrogen-rich gas and biochar was creatively designed, establishing the energy, environmental, and economic analysis comprehensive model. Various energy, economic, and environmental indicators were computed to facilitate process optimization for hydrogen-rich gas co-production biochar and explored the feasibility of the process. The results show that the stage of hydrogen-rich gas prepared by FCOP of biomass is an important factor affecting energy output and input, and has the highest standard pollutant emissions (92.11%). This process has low carbon emissions and GHG emissions, showing good sustainability and application prospects, which has important guiding significance for realizing cleaner production and solving the energy crisis. Thirdly, taking the large-scale system of producing hydrogen-rich gas co-production biochar, which processes 40,000 t of CS per year, as an example, the economic benefit analysis results were obtained, that is, IRR, NPV, and Pm are 22%, 6.33 million yuan, and 7.3 years, respectively. Meanwhile, the key factors, including the initial investment, expenses of biomass and catalyst, and the sale income of hydrogen and biochar, which are the main factors affecting the economic efficiency of technology, and uncertainties were identified through sensitivity analysis. Finally, we put forward in the background of ecological civilization, the research focus and thinking for the development of hydrogen production technology from pyrolysis/gasification of biomass were proposed. The results obtained can be valuable in practical applications to enhance the sustainability and viability of hydrogen production in biomass conversion and utilization activities. The applied energy, economic, and environmental methodologies appear to be reliable and comprehensive tools for assessing the whole-life sustainability and viability of biofuel.

Environmental and economic life cycle assessment of emerging sludge treatment routes

Before implementing large-scale emerging sludge treatment methods, it is crucial to conduct a comprehensive analysis of their environmental impacts and economic costs at the system level. This study utilizes standardized Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost (LCC) accounting methods to evaluate four emerging sludge treatment routes: anaerobic fermentation (AF), pyrolysis (PY), hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), and alkaline thermal hydrolysis (ATH). These routes are compared with two traditional sludge treatment routes, anaerobic digestion (AD) and aerobic composting (AC). The results indicate that the conventional route AD is the optimal choice in terms of environmental pollution, carbon emission control, and life cycle cost. The emerging routes AF and ATH have significant environmental benefits from carbon source recovery and protein recovery. However, they require approximately twice the cumulative energy demand of AD and additional consumption of chemicals, which imposes a greater environmental burden. While PY and HTC outperform the conventional sludge treatment routes in terms of the total environmental impact (1.79E-10, 1.72E-10) due to energy recovery and the use of clean energy sources. AF and PY demonstrate better economic performance (842.11 and 712.00 CNY) compared to the traditional route AC (905.06 CNY). However, both HTC and ATH incur costs approximately 1.3 times higher than AC due to their high energy and material demands. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis reveals that emerging treatment routes are highly influenced by energy and resource recovery and consumption. Therefore, reducing the energy and resource inputs for emerging routes could significantly decrease their environmental impact and cost, maximizing their resource recovery advantages.

External Wall Systems in Passive House Standard: Material, Thermal and Environmental LCA Analysis

The construction sector, a significant consumer of energy, possesses the potential to realize substantial environmental and economic advantages through the adoption of innovative technologies and design approaches. Notably, the Passive House standard, exemplified by energy-efficient single-family homes, emerges as a prominent solution. This study analyzes five external wall systems across multiple stages: (i) a literature review and examination of external wall techniques within the passive standard, utilizing the Passive House Database; (ii) a material and technological assessment of three wood-based and two masonry constructions; (iii) an in-depth thermal performance analysis of selected external partitions; and (iv) a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the external wall systems. Our findings indicate that among the single-family homes built to the passive standard, 50.94% utilized timber constructions, while 34.21% employed masonry. Thermal analysis revealed that the masonry wall, EW-M-01, exhibited superior thermal efficiency with a heat transfer coefficient (U-value) of 0.0889 W/m2K. Meanwhile, the wooden wall, EW-T-01, led its category with a U-value of 0.1000 W/m2K. The LCA highlighted that the wooden wall EW-T-02 presented the lowest integrated non-renewable energy demand (PENTR) at 425.70 MJ/kg and the most favorable Global Warming Potential (GWP), with a reduction of 55.51 kg CO2e. Conversely, the masonry wall EW-M-01 recorded the highest energy demand and CO2e emissions, at 780.96 MJ/kg and 90.59 kg CO2e, respectively. Water consumption was lowest for the EW-T-02 wooden wall (0.08 m3) and highest for the EW-M-02 masonry wall (0.19 m3). Conclusively, our analysis of passive house external walls demonstrates that wood-based systems offer superior performance in terms of materials, thermal efficiency, and LCA indicators, positioning them as the preferred option for sustainable passive construction.

Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of partition walls: Innovative prefabricated systems vs conventional construction

Prefabrication is increasingly recognized as an alternative to conventional on-site construction, offering potential environmental benefits. However, these benefits are context-specific, requiring precise studies for optimal solutions. This paper presents the life-cycle environmental performance of an innovative prefabricated interior partition wall and benchmarks it against a conventional system, providing a replicable model for other novel partition walls. Detailed data collected directly from direct sources were utilized to conduct a cradle-to-gate with options Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), presenting a conveniently described method that can be widely replicated in the construction sector. The adapted LCA method presented in this study contributes to sustainable construction, providing a straightforward and robust approach to assessing the environmental impacts of innovative partition walls compared to conventional walls. For the specific scenario studied, the life-cycle impact assessment results generally indicate a superior environmental performance of the innovative prefabricated interior partition wall compared to the conventional system, resulting in impact reductions ranging from 10 to 60% across evaluated categories. For both systems, the production of materials plays a predominant role in the impact contributions. Furthermore, exploring alternative scenarios yielded significant environmental benefits, particularly in cases considering higher incorporation of recycled materials. Therefore, the direct comparison of the environmental performance of innovative partition walls against traditional solutions emerges as an environmentally sustainable path in the short and medium term. This aligns with the ongoing progress towards decarbonizing the building sector, not only in choosing more environmentally friendly solutions but also in improving the environmental performance of products through assertive changes.

Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Three Excavated Soil and Rock (ESR) Treatment Methods: A Case Study in Shenzhen City

This study aimed to quantitatively assess the environmental impacts of different methods used for treating excavated soil and rock (ESR) in Shenzhen, namely landfilling, sintering, and non-sintering, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The findings indicate that recycling ESR through sintering or non-sintering processes offers more sustainable alternatives than landfilling. The recycled products derived from ESR can effectively replace traditional building materials, thereby reducing their environmental impacts. However, when comparing the environmental impacts of sintering and non-sintering processes, the latter demonstrated more significant impacts, particularly in terms of global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP). Furthermore, it is worth noting that the environmental impacts of the sintering processes are influenced by fuel type and exhaust gas emissions, with natural gas combustion yielding more substantial overall environmental benefits. Moreover, ESR landfilling poses constraints on sustainable development and land resource occupation. This study contributes to a better understanding of the environmental impacts associated with ESR landfilling and recycling, provides management departments with optimal ESR management suggestions, and alleviates environmental pressure from urban development.

Environmental sustainability and life cycle assessment of pilot scale application of coal combustion residue as structural fill in mechanically stabilized earth walls

In this study, three types of coal combustion residue (CCR) have been used, and the life cycle impact of CCR as structural fill behind mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls of three different heights has been conducted. The analysis has been done using OpenLCA software. Results have been compared with MSE walls using natural sand as a structural fill. It is observed that the environmental impacts of using CCR reduce by more than 50 % compared to those of using natural sand. Amongst CCR, the maximum impact is shown by fly ash and the least by bottom ash. Relative to natural sand, the impacts of using CCR decrease with an increase in wall height. The cost analysis of the walls indicates that if structural fills are transported from the same distance, the cost of construction with natural sand is 18–46 % higher than that by CCR as fill. Results reveal that utilizing CCR as structural fill in MSE walls proves to be a more economic and eco-conscious choice compared to the conventional natural soil. These findings could hold considerable implications for the construction sector and its efforts to minimize ecological footprint.

Environmental life cycle, carbon footprint and comparative economic assessment of rainwater harvesting systems in schools – a South African case study

Environmental life cycle, carbon footprint and comparative economic assessment of rainwater harvesting systems in schools – a South African case study