Early-stage comparative life cycle assessment of cement tiles

The construction sector is one of the largest contributors to global energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, with cement-based materials playing a central role in its environmental impact. Cement tiles, despite being marketed as sustainable alternatives to ceramic coatings due to their artisanal production and long durability, rely heavily on Portland cement, a material with high carbon intensity. This study revisits the environmental performance of cement tiles through a comparative analysis between a detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and a simplified ecological audit focused on embodied energy and CO 2 footprint, aiming to evaluate its performance as an early-stage screening tool. The functional unit used was 1 m 2 , equivalent to 25 tiles. Results show that both approaches identify raw material extraction as the dominant contributor to environmental burdens. However, EcoAudit produced systematically higher screening estimates for embodied energy and CO 2 footprint than the values reported in the reference LCA, mainly because both approaches rely on different databases, modelling assumptions, process definitions, and inventory treatments. Nevertheless, relative trends were similar, enabling preliminary differentiation of more sustainable production pathways. The findings highlight the potential of simplified assessment tools for early-stage decision-making and hotspot identification, while reinforcing the need for full LCA studies to obtain accurate and reliable environmental data in construction material evaluation.