NEED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY MATERIALS FOR BUILDING CONSTRUCTION IN ANAMBRA STATE

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p>1.0 INTRODUCTION</p><p>1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY</p><p>In recent years more and more attention is being paid to the environmental impacts of building materials. The constantly increasing cost of energy and raw materials force the construction industry to think about alternatives such as renewable energy sources and raw materials and the reduction of wast.</p><p>Climate change and environmental pressures are major drivers for the promotion of environmental friendly materials.</p><p>Furthermore, this trend is spreading fast and the international document stating intent of being more environmental friendly one as presented. The Kyoto protocol, the energy performance of building directive of the EU, Eneergy Efficiency Directive. In line with the desire for environmental friendly materials, some government have change their legislation setting targets for the sustainability of public and residential buildings. On the other hand, statistics show that an important factor for the well-being of the inhabitants is the choice of building materials, “unhealthy” materials cannot only cause environmental problems but can equally cause asthma and cancer and therefore it is extremely important to choose low emitting building materials. We spend most of our times indoors and building materials influence the “health” and safety of the indoor environment.</p><p>The building industry in Anambra state is rapidly changing-new building materials are all the time emerging on the market and new construction techniques are being developed and more and more challenging designs are being developed to be built it in the expectation that the next building generation will be of low energy and sustainable building materials. The first step towards environmental friendly construction is the appropriate choice of building materials. This is a challenging task and which this research intends to investigate to ascertain the environmental impacts of the chosen materials before the design and construction phases.</p> <br><p></p>