LCA of wall infill made with agriculture waste

Abstract

This chapter includes the result of original work concerning the environmental assessment, in terms of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a novel material for infill walls for building envelopes, obtained from urban agricultural (UA) wastes derived from a tomato crop harvested in a building rooftop greenhouse. Specifically, the hypothesis advanced here, confirmed by the obtained outcomes, is that manufacturing byproducts using UA wastes can contribute to reduce the carbon emissions (also allowing to store temporary the carbon fixed by the crop) contrary to traditional solutions to manage waste, enabling to also reduce energy consumption and compensate emissions associated with the production and transportation phases throughout the lifecycle. Moreover, developing innovative materials as UA waste by-products, contribute to lowering new raw materials depletion for the construction and/or renovation of local buildings, in line with recent initiatives, policies and regulations aimed at enhancing the energy and environmental efficiency of buildings to foster urban resilience against climate change.