Environmental changes are great challenges that humanity must face. This has spurred a flurry of activities aimed to lower our impact on our environment. This essay focuses on the aspects that influence decision makers when choosing construction materials as well as a look into whether wood has a lower impact on the environment compared to concrete when building houses. The materials have been assembled through surveys, interviews and literary studies. The primary factor that was given most weight among entrepreneurs and architects were robustness and safety, and concrete was in that regard favoured over wood. It is also possible that already established economical structures support the use of concrete instead of wood. Environmental aspects are not reflected among entrepreneurs as very important factors when it comes to choosing materials and for change to occur there needs to be more information supporting that wood can be as robust as concrete in structures for it to be similarly prioritised. Concerning wood’s impact on the climate and the environment compared to concrete there is a significant difference in woods favour if only the construction and production phase of the house’s life cycle is examined. However, there are studies that show that depending on the material used and the time the house is expected to remain there are instances where wood has a higher environmental impact than concrete. Conclusively, wood is not always more environmentally friendly. The environmental impact of a material in construction depends heavily on the life span of the house.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-148890 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Johansson, Stina |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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