Ancient clay bricks offer modern levels of sustainability

Durable, adaptable, locally and responsibly sourced, there is much to recommend clay brick as a modern sustainable building material. Rob Flello, CEO of the Brick Development Association, affirms clay brick’s environmental credentials and its role in creating a less impactful infrastructural landscape.  

Clay brick stands as a truly sustainable building material, with its enduring performance showcased for millennia. In contrast to many other forms of construction, clay brick distinguishes itself with a minimum active lifespan of 150 years. Its longevity often surpasses this benchmark, as evidenced in ancient brick structures that remain in use today and date back several thousand years BC. The Pantheon, for example, was constructed with brick in 120AD, and is impeccably preserved to this day. Meanwhile, the city of Cambridge boasts university buildings from the 1400s, further underscoring clay brick’s exceptional durability.  

Superior resilience 

Clay brick is robust and stable, offering exceptional resilience to weather extremes including flooding. Requiring only minimal maintenance such as periodic repointing, clay brick can withstand generations of wear and tear in most environments. Unlike render, timber or other building materials requiring regular maintenance, clay brick’s resilience minimises its environmental impact. Non-flammable and non-combustible, clay brick façades often survive fires structurally intact, enabling renovation and reuse. 

The exceptional durability of clay brick perfectly illustrates the value of a cradle-to-cradle approach to sustainability that is not just about the initial materials used, but about a product’s entire lifecycle from its production to use, maintenance and future reuse or recycling. 

Clay brick exemplifies this whole-life approach. Its longevity lowers its carbon footprint per year of use, and it can be reused multiple times, significantly reducing waste. By reusing clay brick buildings instead of demolishing them, carbon emissions are reduced while preserving the architectural heritage.  

As a reusable and recyclable material, clay brick proves itself as a carbon-friendly building option, saving carbon and retaining the character of our built environment. A cradle-to-cradle mentality recognises the sustainability inherent in this natural material. However, current methods for assessing sustainability, such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) often fail to account for clay brick’s exceptional longevity. EPDs typically use a limited 60-year study period – partly because the Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) underpinning construction sector EPDs often use a study period of circa 60 years for building performance scenarios. This short timeframe overlooks the exceptional longevity of durable materials such as clay brick. As demonstrated, the oldest fired bricks are over 6000-years-old. 

By underestimating the extended lifespans of durable products such as clay brick, EPDs and the specifiers who reference them lack crucial data on true carbon footprints. Lifecycle assessments based on clay brick’s 150+ year service life would reveal its true sustainability compared to materials requiring replacement every 60 years.  

Clay brick is also a local product, with 85% of the bricks used in the UK manufactured here. Clay bricks travel an average of no more than 68 miles from factory to site, reducing economic and environmental costs compared to materials that require long distance transport. 

Reduce energy consumption 

Noted for its excellent thermal mass, clay brick’s ability to absorb, store and release heat energy helps to regulate indoor temperatures and reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling. This contributes to lower operational carbon emissions, as the building requires less energy to maintain comfortable temperatures throughout the year. 

Clay bricks primarily contain only natural elements such as clay, sand, water with minimal additives. As an inert construction material, clay brick is chemically stable and unlikely to react with other substances or release harmful toxins or byproducts during the brick-making process. As clay bricks do not usually require chemical treatment to ensure durability or fire resistance, they do not emit volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde or allergens to air during use. This enhances clay brick’s reputation as a more natural building material that offers optimal comfort for occupants and a minimal impact on the environment. 

With growing scrutiny on sustainable construction, clay brick stands out as an indispensable building material. Locally-sourced, non-polluting, strong, weather and fire-resistant, clay brick facilitates sustainable design while offering hundreds of years of use. 

www.brick.org.uk