The building industry in Morocco accounts for 38% of national energy consumption, and as the country has no fossil fuel resources within its borders, its imports dependencies exceed 96% of its domestic energy needs (Doukkali and Lejars, 2015), which jeopardizes its future energy security, negatively impact its trade balance, and increases the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. While practices to reduce the impacts of buildings’ operation phase to zero are widespread and practicable, the next challenge lies in the embodied impacts. Constructing all new buildings using low-to-no embodied carbon materials is critical to help the country achieve the Paris agreement.

In this paper, the LCA approach was used to assess the environmental impact of a building with three alternative exterior wall systems for a Moroccan house located in a hot semi-arid climate in Marrakech. 

 

To ensure an equal and fair comparison of energy consumption during the operational phase, the indoor comfort conditions, architectural plan, and occupant behavior were identical for each building. Additionally, all non-exterior wall building