Environmental Analysis of Materials Used for Building Foundation

Currently is worldwide a strong and growing interest in the environmental performance as well as interest in evaluating of building material in terms of the sustainable construction. This paper is aimed at the evaluation of materials used for building foundation of 4 residential buildings in the Slovak Republic in terms of its primary energy intensity (PEI), global warming potential (GWP) and acidification potential (AP). Foundation of houses contributes to total environmental impact of whole building by 22.7, 10.3 and 8.5 % in average for GWP, PEI and AP. Concluding the results, GWP values ranged from 0.07 to 0.12 kg CO(2)eq/kg; PEI varied from 0.0.87 to 1.39 MJ/kg and AP from 0.00025 to 0.00036 kg SO(2)eq/kg with average values of 0.091 kg CO(2)eq/kg, 1.17 MJ/kg and 0.000295 kg SO(2)eq/kg for GWP, PEI and AP, respectively. The calculated values were normalized not also to total weight of used foundation materials but to floor area and cubature as well.