Cape Brick proud to exhibit at the Green Building Conference

Cape Brick was the only Cape based brick manufacturer with an exhibition stand at the recent Green Building Conference at the CSIR Convention Center in Pretoria.

One can only assume that the lack of other exhibitors was due to the fact that of all conventional masonry manufacturers, only Cape Brick can claim to produce truly environmentally friendly bricks

Cape Brick proud to exhibit at the Green Building ConferenceHow do they do this? Their quality concrete masonry is made almost entirely from recycled aggregates obtained by crushing and sieving construction and demolition rubble. This results in products with the lowest embodied energy of all conventional masonry products, products that are fully recyclable, and products that are approved by the Concrete Manufacturers Association.

The direct environmental benefits are:

  1. Less virgin aggregates have to be quarried, reducing the mining impact on the environment.
  2. The construction and demolition rubble would normally be dumped, so using it as a material source eases the pressure on landfill sites.
  3. Most landfill sites are located far from the demolition site and most quarries are located far from their markets, so using these materials results in reduced transport requirements.
  4. Cape Brick’s own waste material is reprocessed and therefore does not have to be dumped, further easing pressure on landfill sites and reducing transport requirements.

Reduced transport requirements translate directly to less fossil fuel usage and less greenhouse gas emissions, as well as less traffic congestion. Not to mention that all of this comes at no increase in cost and no compromise in quality standards. 

This is not all. Being made from concrete, these bricks cure naturally over time and do not have to be baked, a process which, from an environmental point of view, consumes large amounts of fossil fuels as well as releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As a rule baked products obviously tend to have a higher embodied energy than non baked products. The recycled concrete bricks manufactured by Cape Brick also exhibit excellent thermal efficiency and are highly energy efficient.

For more information please visit www.capebrick.com or call Jean Tresfon at (021) 511-2006.