Atomic Building Blocks of Global Buildings

Buildings require vast quantities of materials and natural resources. Quantifying and understanding the composition of whole buildings is necessary to support circular economies that mitigate the future environmental impacts of the built environment. An understanding of the chemical composition of buildings can support urban mining efforts for resource management and elemental recovery in addition to furthering the knowledge of the carbon storage potential of buildings. This study estimated the material use intensities (MUIs) (kg/m²) and atomic use intensities (AUIs) (mol/m²) of 1028 whole buildings across eight global regions. Results reveal that buildings primarily consist of six atomic elements (i.e., oxygen, calcium, silicon, carbon, iron, and aluminum). Collectively, these six elements comprise ∼97% of the mass of buildings worldwide. Our analysis also reveals that the average AUIs of whole buildings remain relatively constant and do not vary by global region or building typology. Together, the methodology and data presented herein offer valuable insights for advancing urban mining and circular economy strategies for the global construction sector.