Building with Clay: a Sustainable Alternative for the Construction Sector
"Léém," one of the winners of the Belgium Builds Back Circular (BBBC) project call for the circular economy, encourages the use of unfired earth as a building material. Unfired earth, in the form of clay and loam, is extracted locally, and then turned into building materials thanks to energy- and resource-efficient processes. Léém wants to encourage the sector to build healthy buildings with sustainable and reusable materials.
By supporting this project through the BBBC Fund, the FPS Public Health is encouraging circular innovation in key sectors such as construction. The goal is clear: consume fewer natural resources, extend the life of materials and reduce waste production - critical challenges for a sector with a significant environmental impact.
A Local Resource, Good for Health and Environment
The construction sector is responsible for a significant portion of the CO₂ emissions and generated waste in Belgium. Sustainable construction without pollution? There are alternatives: clay and loam are local materials, 100% recyclable and abundant on Belgian construction sites. Uncontaminated soil from urban construction sites is upcycled into clay building materials. These materials remain chemically unchanged and can be recycled multiple times after use, with hardly any loss of quality or additional energy.
Unfired clay regulates humidity in the home and appears to have a buffering capacity to smooth out any temporary peaks of air pollution. The producers strive to minimise waste and support the local economy by using resources within 250 km of the construction site.
Training and Large-Scale Production: the Driving Force Behind the Ecological Transition
The construction sector faces major challenges (climate adaptation, material costs, innovation, digitisation, manpower, etc.) and is looking for solutions to be more environmentally conscious and circular. BC Materials, the company behind Léém, organises training for people in the construction sector that enhances the expertise in unfired clay in large construction projects.
Anton Maertens, Head of Development at BC Materials, explains: "In 2024, around 1,100 professionals attended a workshop with us on building with clay. These workshops include a visit to our production site, a practical exercise with mixtures of earth, a lecture on clay building materials and making clay plaster and rammed clay or building a clay wall."
Vocational training courses on clay techniques are also organised in cooperation with IFAPME and Syntra. Embuild, the largest trade association for the construction industry in Flanders, covers clay in workshops on bio-based building materials from renewable sources. These are fostering expertise in and application of this lesser-known material, with the link between design and practice essential for broader integration into architecture courses.
Anton Maertens explains that thanks to the support from BBBC, BC Materials is launching larger-scale production and reaching a wider audience. With significant cost savings and drastic reductions in CO₂ emissions of 80 to 90% compared to traditional building materials, Léém is proving that ecological innovation and economic efficiency can go hand in hand.
The "Belgium Builds Back Circular" (BBBC) fund is a Belgian federal initiative that, with the support of the EU's Next Generation programme, is accelerating the transition to a circular economy. This is part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), which links economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis to the goals of the European Green Deal.
