Sustainable Building Material Index

This report provides a Sustainable Building Materials Index (SBMI) assessment of bricks made at a brick making site in Dukathole, near Alliwal North, in the Eastern Cape. It provides an assessment of the sustainability impacts of the brick products and makes recommendations for improvement. The assessment was based on the Sustainable Building Materials Index methodology.

The Sustainable Building Material Index (SBMI) is a methodology for understanding the nature and scale of sustainability impacts of a building material or product. It provides a simple way of capturing, presenting and comparing key social, economic and environmental sustainability effects associated with the production of a material or product.

The site assessed is one of about 100 small informal clay brick manufacturing sites located in Dukathole. It is estimated that only about 30 of these are currently active, although around 69 were active before a building slump in 2012. The area of the brick making site assessed is approximately 3,000m2 and consists of brick forming, drying, firing and storage areas, a water tank and a dwelling with equipment stores. Three permanent and seven casual staff are employed and production is 300,000 bricks a year.