ABSTRACT
An early approximation of the environmental impacts of rammed earth stabilized with 8% OPC as compared to two other forms of masonry construction in Australia by Treloar & Fay (2001) finds
1 THE COSTS OF MAINSTREAM APPEAL
1.1 Cement stabilization and embodied carbon
Rammed earth has experienced an upsurge in popularity over the past fifty years in the developed world, where it commonly incorporates cement stabilizers to provide reliable performance (McHenry, 1984; Easton, 1996; Hall & Swaney, 2012). The embodied carbon of construction materials measures the total carbon emissions resulting from raw material acquisition, manufacturing, and installation (Cohen, 2011) and is a useful measure of their environmental impact. Studies indicate that the embodied carbon of stabilized rammed earth corresponds closely with the use of cement stabilizers due to the energy required to produce cement (Treloar et al, 2001; Lax 2010, Reddy & Kumar, 2010). These findings suggest that there could be considerable environmental benefits to building with unstabilized rammed earth, referred to hereafter as “raw” rammed earth.
