The building industry has consumed a vast amount of natural resources and also been responsible for a significant energy usage. This is expected to increase further with economic development where more people will need quality housing. Therefore, any building material that minimizes the usage of natural resources or use waste materials to a certain extent could have a promising future. Such a novel walling system has been considered in this study, which uses 50% of recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS) to produce lightweight foam concrete panels. A detailed study was carried out to determine the embodied energy of those panels. A comparative study carried out using a typical single storey house and different building materials indicated that the foam concrete precast panel can be a good competitor and hence has the potential to be promoted as a mainstream walling material. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.