Paper Title
Impact of Building Materials on Biodiversity

Abstract
According to a 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by IPBES, 25% of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as the result of human activity. The period since the emergence of humans has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction. Biodiversity –the variability among living organisms is an indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Nowadays, the construction of buildings and manufacturing of building materials have grossly affected the overall biodiversity especially in cities. In most of the countries, the building construction activities are largely concrete based and cement being the main binding material in concrete, there is a huge demand in the production of cement in industries. This demand and supply will increase more in coming years. This increase in the production of cement will require a bulk consumption of raw materials which in turn will result in substantial depletion in natural resources involving significant amount of release of harmful gas and large volume of carbon di Oxide and other waste which is harmful not only for our atmosphere but also water bodies where this waste materials are deposited.Glass is another important building material which is being used in abundance nowadays. It also add to the beautification of the building from inside as well as outside which may satisfy humans but erection of glass building is creating huge impact on bird mortality rate which is a very important aspect of our ecosystem that we have to notice for future sustainability. From a recent review, scientists have estimated that not less than 100 million birds die each year in the US colliding with the glass covered skyscraper.The biodiversity impacts of renewable and non-renewable materials in LCA. Hence the extraction of raw materials and the careful selection of building materials must be done in a way that explains sustainability so that we can find a way to replace the conventional energy-intensive materials with much improved raw materials or renewable resources which can help the ecosystem to maintain its balance for the generations to come. In this paper we have used birds as biodiversity indicator and analyzed the effect on birds due to different building materials used in city of Kolkata. Keywords - Building Materials, production of Cement, Biodiversity, Glass Building, Birds