Over the last years, a detailed analysis of the environmental impacts of clay brick production and utilisation in South Africa was commissioned by the Clay Brick Association (CBA) of South Africa and Swisscontact, co-funded by the National Research Foundation and conducted by the Department of Architecture at the University of Pretoria (UP). The study, under the leadership of Prof Piet Vosloo, was performed using specific production data from 86 out of the 102 clay brick production sites in South Africa which are members of the CBA. The analysis was conducted in accordance with the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards with an external review in order to aim at the highest quality standards. A second and parallel study compared the thermal performance of the six most often used wall construction methods over three building typologies and over the six South African climatic regions. In accordance with the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards, the results were summarised in two extensive reports produced by UP and tailored for environmental experts which describes the detailed methodology, data basis and all the assumptions used in the study.

In order to facilitate the dissemination of the findings of the reports amongst the members of the CBA and stakeholders perhaps without expertise in environmental assessment, Swisscontact contracted Quantis to extract, in collaboration with UP, the most relevant results from the main report and consolidate these in a separate document.

The project resulted in three research reports:

Vosloo, P.T., Harris, H., Holm, D., van Rooyen, C.J. & Rice, G.A. (2016a). Life Cycle Assessment of clay brick walling in South Africa - The Clay Brick Association of South Africa: Technical Report 7A. In two volumes, prepared by the Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria for the Clay Brick Association of South Africa. ISBN 978-1-77592-113-4.

Vosloo, P.T., Harris, H., Holm, D., van Rooyen, C.J. & Rice, G.A. (2016b). A Thermal Performance Comparison between six wall construction methods frequently used in South Africa - The Clay Brick Association of South Africa: Technical Report 7B. Prepared by the Department of Architecture, University of Pretoria for the Clay Brick Association of South Africa. ISBN 978-1-77592-114-1.

Del Duce, A., Vosloo P.T. & Rice, G.A. 2017. Environmental impacts of clay bricks in South Africa. Management Summary and consolidation report of the LCA study titled “Life Cycle Assessment of clay brick walling in South Africa”. Prepared for the Clay Brick Association of South Africa by Quantis and UP Department of Architecture and funded by SwissContact.

Prof Piet Vosloo can be seen handing over the reports to Mr. Nico Mienie, CEO of the Clay Brick Association (on the left) and Mr. Musa Shangase, Chairman of the CBA Board (middle).