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.