Life-cycle assessment applied to buildings: gaps in knowledge

Sauer, Aline Silva; Gama, João Luiz Calmon Nogueira da

doi:10.1080/00207233.2019.1704036

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Beyond the limitation due to severe data requirements, LCA is also a complex tool to use and understand, and it might require expert knowledge to conduct an LCA [30]. Furthermore, the results will always have a certain level of uncertainty, e.g., due to lack of specific data [41][42][43]. Literature covers a large sample of completed building LCAs that could potentially aid designers in gaining environmental information without having to conduct an LCA themselves.…”

Section: Life-cycle Assessment In the Building Design Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Lack of Knowledge and Tools Hinders the Eco-Design of Buildings—A Systematic Review

et al. 2021

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The building sector is responsible for extensive resource consumption and waste generation, resulting in high pressure on the environment. A way to potentially mitigate this is by including environmental considerations during building design through the concept known as eco-design. Despite the multiple available approaches of eco-design, the latter is not easily achieved in the building sector. The objective of this paper is to identify and discuss what barriers are currently hindering the implementation of eco-design in the building sector and by which measures building designers can include environmental considerations in their design process. Through a systematic literature review, several barriers to implementation were identified, the main ones being lack of suitable legislation, lack of knowledge amongst building designers, and lack of suitable tools for designers to use. Furthermore, two specific tools were identified that allow the inclusion of environmental consideration in building design, along with nine design strategies providing qualitative guidance on how to potentially minimize energy and material consumption, as well as waste generation. This paper contributes a holistic overview of the major barriers to and existing tools and method for the eco-design of buildings, and provides guidance for both future research and practice.

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Section: Life-cycle Assessment In the Building Design Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Lack of Knowledge and Tools Hinders the Eco-Design of Buildings—A Systematic Review

et al. 2021

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“…Another interesting issue with LCA analysis raised is the incorrect interpretation of analysis due to the lack of clear and transparent research information. A recent study by Sauer and Calmon [34] aimed to identify the current knowledge gaps in LCA analysis. The lack of standardisation was found to be the main cause of knowledge gaps.…”

Section: Life Cycle Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments of an Innovative FRP Composite Footbridge

Jena

Kaewunruen

2021

Sustainability

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Sustainable construction and the design of low-carbon structures is a major concern for the UK construction industry. FRP composite materials are seen as a suitable alternative to traditional construction materials due to their high strength and light weight. Network Rail has developed a prototype for a new innovative footbridge made entirely from FRP with the aim of replacing the current steel design for footbridges. This study conducted a life cycle analysis of this novel composite footbridge design to quantify the cost and environmental benefits. An LCA and LCC analysis framework was used to analyse the environmental impacts and cost savings of the bridge throughout its lifespan from raw material extraction to its end of life. From the results of the LCA and LCC, the FRP footbridge sustainability was reviewed and compared to a standard steel footbridge. Due to the uncertainty of the fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) structure’s lifespan, multiple scenarios for longevity at the assets-use stage were studied. The study revealed that the FRP bridge offered substantial economic savings whilst presenting potentially worse environmental impacts, mainly caused by the impact of the production of FRP materials. However, our study also demonstrated the influences of uncertainties related to the glass-fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) material design life and end-of-life disposal on the whole life cycle analyses. The results show that if the FRP footbridge surpasses its original estimation for lifespan, the economic savings can be increased and the environmental impacts can be reduced substantially.

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“…Building LCAs mostly apply the attributional approach (Khasreen et al, 2009;Buyle et al, 2013;Anand and Amor, 2017;Nwodo and Anumba, 2019;Sauer and Calmon, 2020;Fauzi et al, 2021), thus leaving application of building CLCA in its fairly early stages (Buyle et al, 2013;Röck et al, 2020;Saade et al, 2020). Consequently, attributionalbased conclusions shape most environmental and climate policy decisions on buildings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic review of consequential LCA on buildings: the perspectives and challenges of applications and inventory modelling

Hansen

Rasmussen

Ryberg³

et al. 2022

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose.The built environment has demonstrated the limited nature of applications of consequential LCA (LCA), whereas attributional LCA (ALCA) is applied in most situations. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the contexts in which CLCA might be applied and the state of CLCA on buildings by examining the following research questions: (i) How are the goal, scope and methodological aspects and associated gaps of CLCA of buildings addressed in the literature? (ii) How can these insights guide the applications of CLCA on buildings? Methods. The study employed the Systematic Literature Review methodology, which yielded 37 relevant studies. The study examined the sample regarding intended applications, the contexts of micro or meso/macro decision-making support, and the consequential life-cycle inventory modelling (CLCI) of time horizons, market delimitations, market volume trends, affected suppliers, constrained supplies and substitution. Furthermore, the basis for choosing either an ALCA or a CLCA approach was evaluated based on the ILCD Handbook. Results and discussion. Many studies include an empirical assessment, yet with half of those combining it with an evaluation of selected methodological aspects, CLCA on buildings seems to still be in the earlier exploration phase. In general, the empirical CLCAs emphasize the decision-making aspect in the stated application of the study. Furthermore, CLCA studies show an almost equal distribution of focus between the micro and meso/macro levels of decision support. This entails that CLCA on buildings currently applies to both material-and building-level assessments and policy situations. The inclusion of CLCI modelling elements varies: e.g., nine studies only include substitution as the single CLCI element. Additionally, modelling methods are described at various levels of detail, and with critical differences in the transparency of documentation. This, therefore, suggests that the consistency of included CLCI elements is inadequate, as is how they should be modelled. Conclusions and recommendations. Building on the ILCD Handbook, this study presents a proposal for deciding when to select CLCA on buildings. This is a proposal for a simple and clear distinction threshold between the micro and meso/macro levels. Additionally, CLCA on buildings need a more harmonized approach to CLCI modelling to increase and improve, which the built environment community could achieve by settling on a standard for the inclusion of CLCI elements and associated modelling methods.

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Life-cycle assessment applied to buildings: gaps in knowledge

Cited by 11 publications

References 86 publications

How Lack of Knowledge and Tools Hinders the Eco-Design of Buildings—A Systematic Review

How Lack of Knowledge and Tools Hinders the Eco-Design of Buildings—A Systematic Review

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments of an Innovative FRP Composite Footbridge

A systematic review of consequential LCA on buildings: the perspectives and challenges of applications and inventory modelling

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