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Corresponding Author

Abdel-Ghaffar, Mohamed

Subject Area

Architectural Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

There is a lot of imagery associated with the term "environmentally". Environmentally friendly products (Green products) –from the photovoltaic panels to the buildings made up of Aluminuum cans and old tires- look distinctive. Green building materials are green in the way they are manufactured, used, and recycled after use. What is meant here are alternative agricultural, recycled content, nontoxic, and energy efficient products that may display environmental ethics. Prior to the industrial revolution, society met most of their needs with materials from the earth and then returned to the earth after use. Nowadays, many green products are gaining ground in the mainstream. That means they could perform and are cost- competitive. The aim of this paper is to reach a strategy to achieve sustainability in our daily construction operations particularly in the field of selection and specifications of building materials that neither harm the environment nor exhaust the natural capacity or the sources. In order to attain this aim some objective are targeted. These objectives include: Clarifying the meaning of greenness of building material, setting up the guidelines for the selection of building materials that enhance the environmental quality and promote sustainable construction operations, and then applying the strategy on some kind of construction associated with concrete and masonry works. Principles of assessing the greenness of building materials include: resource management, toxicity, and performance. The product selection process includes the following steps: identifying materials category (site construction, wood, masonry, concrete, finishes, mechanical, etc.), identifying green building materials, and select and document choice. The conclusion of this paper can summarize the rules of selecting green building materials, the general rules are: Maximizing the durability, maximizing the energy efficiency, maximizing the future recycleability, maximizing the maintainability, maximizing the recycled content and closing the loop, maximizing the use of local and regional materials, minimizing the embodies energy, minimizing the use of hazardous natural chemicals, and minimizing the use of synthetic chemicals. Finally, the sustainable manners of using concrete different types and masonry units are explained in details within this search paper.

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