Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool for assessing the environmental impacts of a system, product or service. Cleaner production and pollution prevention opportunities for the cement sector include: 1) use of alternate fuels in cement kilns; 2) NOX reduction; 3) reduction of dust emissions; 4) reuse of bypass dust; and 5) treatment of hazardous waste. Nowadays, Egypt faced energy scarcity inducing political, social and environmental factors putting pressure on the cement industries to obtain their energy from coal instead of the natural gas, solar and mazzut. Therefore, this paper focuses on assessing the environmental impacts of cement producing facilities in Egypt with regard to their environmental compliance if coal is used compared to other sources by using the LCA tool. A comparative analysis among various fuel types of typical cement plant in Egypt is conducted. Results show that the decision of replacing the existing used fuels in cement industry by coal will carry an additional burden on the environment approximately by 20%. Based on a midpoint method, the global warming potential and respiratory inorganics recorded highly negative impacts of 20% and 25% respectively when using the coal compared with other fuels type. Referring to the endpoint method, the damages to human health (DALY) is dominated when using the coal with a relative contribution of 30%. This increased adverse expected damage must be faced from the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) by the limitation and constrains of how to control the output emissions from the plant chimney.

The construction industry in Egypt is a main contributor to the Egyptian economy and one of its fastest rising sectors. The development rate is the direct result of high request for housing as well as the state ’s large infrastru cture projects. The main common construction materi- als in Egypt are the adobe/clay, cement, sand and straw/raw brick. Recently, the private manufac- turers have commercially produced walls for low- rise structures up to three stories high by propos- ing a new building system called a 3 -D panel system (3 -D PS). The 3D -PS is currently being used in many building in Egypt, without any environmental assessment regardless of the structural system or aesthetic. Therefore, this paper comes on line to assess the environ mental impacts of this new construction system. It compares its performance with that of the other traditional con- struction materials/methods. The software SimaPro 8.1 is used under IMAPCT 2002+ method to compute the environmental impact assessment of the 3D -PS. The results show that the clay brick has largest adverse impacts than the 3D -PS with a difference of 7%. In contrast, the sand and straw/raw brick have a lowest adverse impacts. Comparing the 3D -PS with sand brick, the latter has lower adverse impacts by 81.40%. It is concluded that the clay brick is the worst from envi- ronmental impact point of view while the best is the sand brick and straw/raw brick. Between the worst and the best comes the 3D- PS. The study recommends carrying out a life cycle assessment of any new product/material before using it.

Residential buildings play prominent role in sustainable development and environmental impacts. Therefore, the aim of this paper is using the life cycle assessment (LCA) tool to assess the environmental impacts of the Egyptian typical residential building. SimaPro V8.1 was used in the analysis under ISO 14040 standards. Results show that the main contributor to all other environmental impacts are mainly those related to energy use in the operational/use stage contributing by (71.9%). On the other hand, the disposal scenarios provide positive environmental impacts by (-12.1%). Further possible measures to enhance the environmental impacts are mentioned in the paper conclusions.

Egypt in 2015 announced the alteration of the fuels used in cement plants without the least regard to minimizing the environmental burden (EB) excesses. This study conducts a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of Egyptian cement-manufacturing unit, which is considered as the first one on LCA cement analysis to be conducted in Egypt. This study investigates the LCA of the cement industry in Egypt compared to the Swiss industry, using two methodologies. The first one has been done on-site, surveying the most common types of cement used in the construction industry in Egypt. Meanwhile, SimaPro software has been used to assess the environmental impacts, and three different cement plants were selected for this study: an Egyptian cement plant (ECP) which uses electricity, natural gas, and diesel as energy sources; a Swiss cement plant (SCP) which depends mainly on electricity, natural gas, and coal; and an Egyptian hypothetical plant (EHP) in which electricity and coal are assumed to be the main energy feeds, and comparisons of different strategies including midpoint and endpoint methods are outlined. Regarding the midpoint method, ETP recorded higher respiratory inorganics, aquatic acidification, global warming, and nonrenewable energy impacts than ECP, because of using coal, while for SCP, global warming and respiratory inorganics achieved the highest adverse impacts compared to ECP and EHP—due to the different manufacturing technology used. With regard to the endpoint method, the peak possibility of human health deterioration has been recorded due to the use of coal as fuel. This possibility was reduced by 46 % in the case of SCP as a result of the technology applied, which interestingly represents a reasonable reduction in terms of technological application.

Due to the significant global environmental impacts of building construction through water consumption, energy use, gas emission and solid waste, a building’s sustainability becomes the fourth consideration after cost, time and quality for the success of its design and construction. The green building standards state that a building is considered environmentally green whenever its structure and expected use simultaneously match the prescribed environmental standards over the span of its life-cycle. Therefore, the life cycle assessment of different buildings was studied to investigate building sustainability and how to achieve the criteria for green buildings. It was shown that a green building does not have a particular construction method, but it is a set of techniques, materials, and technologies suitably integrated together to improve the environmental performance of the building. Thus, this research will focus on steel as the main construction material which can be an appropriate choice that represents interesting solutions to fulfill the green building standards. The characteristics of durability, adaptability and recyclability of steel structures can definitely be highlighted at construction sustainability principles. Otherwise, the Egyptian steel industry has been performing a great effort to accomplish the optimum environmental performance, provide a high structural performance and quality, and satisfy clients’ requirements for sustainability. Data from a private steel plant in Egypt has been compiled as a step to complete the Egyptian life cycle inventory so that the steel industry could be environmentally assessed.

Effective utilization of Daylighting Systems (DLS) in buildings has the potential to maximize the benefits of daylighting, reduce energy consumption, and achieve a quality building environment for the users. Even though the number of possible alternatives that can be generated for integrating DLS in buildings is immense, the number of DLS alternatives simulated and analyzed in previous research has been fairly limited. Therefore, this paper focuses on expanding the number of design alternatives to be simulated and analyzed for integrating DLS individually and collectively at both individual zones and in the whole building, including at different orientations, in order to better inform and enrich design decisions for selecting the best alternatives of DLS that can achieve the highest energy performance for office buildings in a hot climate zone such as Egypt. Daylighting and Energy simulation are conducted for these alternatives, along with visual and comfort analysis. The results of conducting a comparative study of various DLS in Office Buildings in Egypt include identifying optimal alternatives for improving energy efficiency. Results indicate that HSD and HST, whether individually or collectively, can achieve the highest savings, with a reduction of 40% in the energy consumption of cooling and lighting, while HLE saves 38% and HBI saves 24% of the energy consumption for cooling and lighting. The paper concludes with a developed guide to be used by building designers at the conceptual design stages to improve energy efficiency of buildings by selecting and integrating the most appropriate DLS based on building conditions and designers’ preferences of façade design.

Effective utilization of Daylighting Systems (DLS) in buildings has the potential to maximize the benefits of daylighting, reduce energy consumption, and achieve a quality building environment for the users. Even though the number of possible alternatives that can be generated for integrating DLS in buildings is immense, the number of DLS alternatives simulated and analyzed in previous research has been fairly limited. Therefore, this paper focuses on expanding the number of design alternatives to be simulated and analyzed for integrating DLS individually and collectively at both individual zones and in the whole building, including at different orientations, in order to better inform and enrich design decisions for selecting the best alternatives of DLS that can achieve the highest energy performance for office buildings in a hot climate zone such as Egypt. Daylighting and Energy simulation are conducted for these alternatives, along with visual and comfort analysis. The results of conducting a comparative study of various DLS in Office Buildings in Egypt include identifying optimal alternatives for improving energy efficiency. Results indicate that HSD and HST, whether individually or collectively, can achieve the highest savings, with a reduction of 40% in the energy consumption of cooling and lighting, while HLE saves 38% and HBI saves 24% of the energy consumption for cooling and lighting. The paper concludes with a developed guide to be used by building designers at the conceptual design stages to improve energy efficiency of buildings by selecting and integrating the most appropriate DLS based on building conditions and designers’ preferences of façade design.

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