Preliminary Analysis of the Production of Traditional and Alternative Wall-Building Materials in Vietnam

Vietnam is undergoing a continuing construction boom. This enormous volume of new constructions is characterized by simple building techniques and large consumption of materials. The Vietnamese government would like to reduce the use of traditional fired clay bricks to avoid inefficient brick production with high energy use, significant CO2 emissions, and the accompanying destruction of valuable agricultural land due to clay mining. The strategy is to switch to alternative wall-building materials in efficient industrial production methods. To support this development, the BMBF-funded project “CAMaRSEC” is developing a study on life-cycle assessment of building materials that provides the basis for sustainable resource management and avoiding hazards to the local environment. A key focus is the holistic investigation of the Production Stage of traditionally fired clay bricks as well as currently existing alternative wall-building materials (non-fired bricks). At present available data sets are mainly for developed countries and cannot be applied to the production methods in Vietnam. Therefore, there is an urgent need for local data sets generated within this project.