Emergy analysis of building manufacturing, maintenance and use: Em-building indices to evaluate housing sustainability

Pulselli, Riccardo Maria; Simoncini, E.; Pulselli, Federico Maria; Bastianoni, Simone

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2006.10.004

Cited by 229 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Brown and Buranakarn evaluated emergy consumption in the life cycles of the main building materials used in a 1012 m 2 building located in Florida [28]. Pulselli and colleagues used emergy analysis for calculating material and energy inputs during the construction and operation (including maintenance) phases of a 2700 m 2 multi-storey building in central Italy to gain insights for the evaluation and selection of building materials and technologies [4]. For their part, Li and Wang used a mixed life-cycle assessment and emergy analysis approach to evaluate a large-scale suburban residential area of more than 152 thousand people and almost 62 thousand households in Beijing, focusing mainly on building materials use [29].…”

Section: Emergy Evaluation In Urban Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A major contributor to this utilization rate is the residential, or domestic, sector. Around 30% of energy use in the world goes to housing [4], operation of buildings reaches up to 50%, 41% and 36% of total energy consumption in the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States, respectively, on a national basis [5]. In countries like Canada, household water utilization accounts for around 30% of all the used water [6].…”

Section: Domestic Resource Utilization and Urban Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainability Assessment of the Residential Land Use in Seven Boroughs of the Island of Montreal, Canada

et al. 2015

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High resource utilization in the residential sector, and the associated environmental impacts, are central issues in the growth of urban regions. Land-use urban planning is a primary instrument for the proper development of cities; an important point is the consideration of the urban form's influence on resource utilization intensity. Emergy synthesis, an energy-based methodological approach that allows the quantification and integration of both natural and human-generated flows interacting in urban environments, was used to assess sustainability of the residential land use of seven boroughs on the Island of Montreal. Natural resources, food, water, acquired goods and services, electricity and fuels were the main flows considered in the analysis. Results suggest that income, household size and distance to downtown are the variables affecting resource utilization intensity more noticeably and that allocation of green area coverage is an important parameter for OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 2455 controlling land use intensity. With the procedure used for calculating resource use intensity in the seven boroughs, it is possible to generate a tool to support urban planning decisionmaking for assessing sustainable development scenarios. Future research should consider urban green space potential for accommodating local waste treatment systems, acting as a greenhouse gas emissions sink and promoting human health.

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Section: Emergy Evaluation In Urban Regionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Domestic Resource Utilization and Urban Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability Assessment of the Residential Land Use in Seven Boroughs of the Island of Montreal, Canada

et al. 2015

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“…For case studies of emergy synthesis in the built environment, the following papers may also be consulted [23][24][25][26][27][28]33,51]. …”

Section: Emergy Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergy Evaluation of Dwelling Operation in Five Housing Units of Montreal Island, Canada

et al. 2017

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Sustainability of cities and the environmental implications of high resource utilization by the domestic sector are growing concerns related to urban regions. Well-informed urban planning decision-making is an essential tool to help in the task and, for that, an important point to consider is the influence of parameters like residential density and housing typology on the intensity of resource utilization. Emergy synthesis, a life-cycle energy analysis methodological approach that considers the interaction of natural and human-made flows, was used to evaluate the environmental support for dwelling operational stage in five typical present-day housing units on the island of Montreal. As expected, resource utilization, measured as total emergy used, was positively correlated to housing unit size both with respect to number of occupants and dwelling size. Results suggest that variables affecting notably the intensity of resource utilization are per household income and per dweller habitable space and, while a higher income increased per capita emergy in all cases, increasing space availability per resident did not result in a decrease of empower density after 50 m 2 /person. Future work should consider lower and higher densities and analyses at the scale of blocks, neighborhoods and urban planning zones.

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“…The residential sector consumes approximately 30% of global primary energy [1], thus contributing significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and global warming. In the EU, buildings are responsible for over 40% of energy use and a similar proportion of GHG emissions [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving a holistic view of the life cycle performance of existing dwellings

Famuyibo¹,

Duffy²,

Strachan

2013

Building and Environment

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Models which fully evaluate the life cycle energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of national housing stocks are not reported in literature. Capturing a holistic view of energy and emissions of the residential sector is an important process that can lead to a more effective policy making. This paper presents a methodology which evaluates the life cycle energy and GHG emissions of retrofitting housing stocks considering all life cycle stages and incorporating, to the greatest extent possible, all upstream inputs.To achieve this, we developed a hybrid model of the existing Irish housing stock, comprising a process-based approach supplemented by input -output LCA for installation of materials and fit-outs and maintenance of appliances. Life cycle analysis (LCA) is a commonly accepted technique for evaluating cradle-to-grave environmental impacts of a product. Using an assumed 50-year life span in all cases, representative archetypes were used to estimate the performance along retrofitting, operation, maintenance and disassembly phases of the three selected house retrofit scenarios: BaseCase (no intervention), Current Standards (retrofitting to meet existing building regulations) and Passive House (retrofitting to meet Passive House Standards).Results show that detached houses displayed the highest range of life cycle energy and exhibited the greatest absolute and percentage reductions compared to other house types, as life cycle energy ranges from 386 -614kWh/m 2 .yr, 225 -261kWh/m 2 .yr and 126 -137kWh/m 2 .yr for all house scenarios, respectively. Using these results an assessment is provided for policy makers on a holistic view of the life cycle performance of existing dwellings.

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Emergy analysis of building manufacturing, maintenance and use: Em-building indices to evaluate housing sustainability

Cited by 229 publications

References 8 publications

Sustainability Assessment of the Residential Land Use in Seven Boroughs of the Island of Montreal, Canada

Sustainability Assessment of the Residential Land Use in Seven Boroughs of the Island of Montreal, Canada

Emergy Evaluation of Dwelling Operation in Five Housing Units of Montreal Island, Canada

Achieving a holistic view of the life cycle performance of existing dwellings

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