Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to assess five locally developed mix designs for a 20 m low-height noise barrier (LHNB) categorized as: precast Portland cement concrete (S0-baseline scenario), two precast geopolymer composites (S1; S2), and two additive-manufactured geopolymer composites (S3; S4). The objective of the study is to carry out a LCA study of the mix designs, to identify environmental hotspots and evaluate the influence of durability and service life on the LCA results. Environmental impact categories assessed are global warming potential (GWP), fossil depletion, photochemical ozone formation, and acidification. Results show that when a fixed service life of 40 years is chosen for all mix designs, S4 is the most environmentally sustainable with 73% reduced GWP when compared to S0. When sensitivity analysis was used to determine the effect of varying service life (10–40 years) on S1–S4; S4 shows equivalent to better environmental performance than S0. Carbonation was considered and result shows up to 8% of CO₂ uptake can be achieved. In conclusion, S4 depicts solutions and concepts that result in environmental improvement potentials for a LHNB from geopolymer composites. The results from this study supported decision-making and guided in the development a 20 m LHNB from 83% industrial side-streams and 0.3% alkali activator maintaining a 10 dB absorption capacity.

生命周期评估 (LCA) 方法用于评估 20 m 低高度噪声屏障 (LHNB) 的五种当地开发的混合设计，分类为：预制波特兰水泥混凝土（S0 基线情景）、两种预制地质聚合物复合材料（S1；S2 ) 和两种增材制造的地质聚合物复合材料 (S3; S4)。该研究的目的是对混合设计进行 LCA 研究，以确定环境热点并评估耐久性和使用寿命对 LCA 结果的影响。评估的环境影响类别包括全球变暖潜能值 (GWP)、化石消耗、光化学臭氧形成和酸化。结果表明，当为所有混合设计选择 40 年的固定使用寿命时，S4 是最环保的，与 S0 相比，GWP 降低了 73%。当使用敏感性分析来确定不同使用寿命（10-40 年）对 S1-S4 的影响时；S4 显示等效于比 S0 更好的环境性能。考虑了碳酸化，结果显示高达 8% 的 CO可以实现_2个吸收。总之，S4 描述了解决方案和概念，这些解决方案和概念为地聚合物复合材料的 LHNB 带来了环境改善潜力。这项研究的结果支持决策并指导开发 20 m LHNB，其中 83% 的工业侧流和 0.3% 的碱活化剂保持 10 dB 的吸收能力。