Life cycle assessment (LCA) of the building sector: strengths and weaknesses

Rønning, Anne; Brekke, Andreas

doi:10.1533/9780857097729.1.63

Cited by 20 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…However, the focus has shifted to include the embodied environmental impacts of a building [12]. Standardization has played an important role in introducing life cycle assessment (LCA) in the building construction industry [13]. As part of the trend, a CEN standard specifies performance of LCA on buildings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of Building Renovation Measures–Trade-off between Building Materials and Energy

2019

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The scope of this study is to assess how different energy efficient renovation strategies affect the environmental impacts of a multi-family house in a Nordic climate within district heating systems. The European Union has set ambitious targets to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030. There is special attention on reducing the life cycle emissions in the buildings sector. However, the focus has often been on new buildings, although existing buildings represent great potential within the building stock in Europe. In this study, four different renovation scenarios were analyzed with the commercially available life cycle assessment software that follows the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standard. This study covers all life cycle steps from the cradle to the grave for a residential building in Borlänge, Sweden, where renewable energy dominates. The four scenarios included reduced indoor temperature, improved thermal properties of building material components and heat recovery for the ventilation system. One finding is that changing installations gives an environmental impact comparable to renovations that include both ventilation and building facilities. In addition, the life cycle steps that have the greatest environmental impact in all scenarios are the operational energy use and the building and installation processes. Renovation measures had a major impact on energy use due to the cold climate and low solar irradiation in the heating season. An interesting aspect, however, is that the building materials and the construction processes gave a significant amount of environmental impact.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of Building Renovation Measures–Trade-off between Building Materials and Energy

2019

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“…Nations are committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and as a response 186 Countries ratified the climate agreement signed in Paris in 2015 with the goal of limiting global temperature increase below 2 degree Celsius (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2015). Traditionally, the building and energy sectors have contributed significantly to GHG emissions (Sartori and Hestnes 2007, Rønning and Brekke 2014, Oslo kommune 2016. Increasingly stringent energy requirements, improved energy efficiency, and decarbonisation of the electricity grid lead to a significant reduction in emissions from operational energy use in low or zero energy buildings (Kristjansdottir et al 2017, Wiik et al 2018b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from CLT and glulam in two residential nearly zero energy buildings

Lolli

Fufa

Wiik

2019

Wood Material Science & Engineering

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This paper analyses and compares the embodied and operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of two nearly Zero Energy Buildings, a student housing building in Trondheim, Norway, and a residential building in Växjö, Sweden. The student housing in Trondheim, Moholt Allmenning Tower B, is a 9storey tower composed of cross laminated timber (CLT) panels and concrete floor slabs with a total heated floor area of 3801 m 2. The apartment building in Växjö, House A, consists of 8 floors composed of glued laminated timber (glulam) beams with a wood-cassette floor, and concrete slabs with a total heated floor area of 3483 m 2. The results show that the use of CLT has the largest reduction of total GHG emissions due to substituting concrete elements in the structural frame. The comparative assessment of the external wall and the internal floor constructions shows that the use of CLT adds marginal GHG emissions per unit of area of component. The calculation of operational GHG emissions shows that the use of the Nordic electricity mix disfavours the fullelectric energy system of Moholt Allmenning Tower B, in contrast to the district heating used in Norra Vallen Building A.

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“…A comprehensive Swiss study of non-road energy consumption and pollutant emissions found construction machinery as the largest contributor to CO2 emissions and third largest contributor to CO emissions [4], whilst the McKinsey report estimates that 10-15% of building materials are wasted during construction [5]. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-established methodology used for the environmental assessment of buildings [6]. Due to the long lifespan of buildings, operational energy use has traditionally been identified as the main contributor to high GHG emissions in buildings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the long lifespan of buildings, operational energy use has traditionally been identified as the main contributor to high GHG emissions in buildings. However, because of increasingly stringent energy requirements and improved energy efficiency, the significance of emissions from operational energy has decreased [6]. In contrast, environmental impacts from the production, construction, maintenance, replacement and demolition phases are gaining significance [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, because of increasingly stringent energy requirements and improved energy efficiency, the significance of emissions from operational energy has decreased [6]. In contrast, environmental impacts from the production, construction, maintenance, replacement and demolition phases are gaining significance [6]. This trend is even more pronounced in zero emission buildings (ZEBs), whereby the embodied emissions associated with materials and construction contribute to a large proportion of total GHG emissions [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimated and Actual Construction Inventory Data in Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emission Calculations for a Norwegian Zero Emission Building (ZEB) Construction Site

Fufa

Wiik

Andressen

2018

Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

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The Norwegian construction industry is responsible for approximately 1.2% of national GHG emissions during the construction phase. Consequently, there is a growing interest in addressing construction emissions. Therefore, this article aims to comprehensively document and analyse construction phase emissions from a Norwegian ZEB construction site, and compare estimated and actual data in embodied construction emission calculations. Construction site activities considered include transportation and installation of building materials, construction machinery, temporary works, energy use, waste management and person transport. The environmental performance is calculated in terms of GHG emissions weighted as carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq). The embodied construction emission results are 1.1 kgCO2eq/m 2 /yr for estimated data, and 2 kgCO2eq/m 2 /yr for actual data. The results show a 44% increase in emissions when using actual data instead of estimated data. The largest contributors to emissions are the operation of construction machinery (47%), energy use (17%), transport of building materials to site (15%) person transport (10%), installation of building materials (10%), followed by temporary works (0.8%) and construction waste (0.3%). This study highlights the importance of embodied construction emissions in Norwegian ZEBs, and recommends paying more attention to the construction phase in the future. These results may be used in future Norwegian construction projects, to help measure, evaluate and compare the environmental performance of construction activities.

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) of the building sector: strengths and weaknesses

Cited by 20 publications

References 25 publications

Life Cycle Assessment of Building Renovation Measures–Trade-off between Building Materials and Energy

Life Cycle Assessment of Building Renovation Measures–Trade-off between Building Materials and Energy

An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from CLT and glulam in two residential nearly zero energy buildings

Estimated and Actual Construction Inventory Data in Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emission Calculations for a Norwegian Zero Emission Building (ZEB) Construction Site

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