Carbon footprint of thermal insulation materials in building envelopes

With increasing world population and economic development, the strain on resources is increasing. Energy consumption during construction and use of building is enormous. In this study, a quantitative comparison of various thermal insulation materials used in construction, from most commonly used to new, highly efficient insulation materials, was performed. It was demonstrated that the evaluation and consideration of environmental impact per unit weight of thermal insulation materials are inappropriate and can lead to misleading decisions, since it is imperative that the analysis considers the difference in the density of each thermal insulation material, as well as differences in their thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the environmental neutrality, i.e. the time needed to offset the carbon footprint of the manufacturing and the installation of thermal insulation materials in the building envelope with the difference between the carbon footprint of the heat losses in the heating season through a currently averagely insulated external envelope and a well-insulated external envelope, is achieved in very short-time periods. For the thermal insulation materials with the lowest environmental impact, it is reached in less than one heating season and soon after tenth heating seasons for the insulation with the highest environmental impact.