Life-cycle impact ‘cradle to cradle’ of building assemblies

Silvestre, José Dinis; Brito, Jorge de; Pinheiro, Manuel Duarte

doi:10.1680/ensu.13.00005

Cited by 17 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…However, the quantification of this advantage of XPS would only be possible by performing a comparison of the environmental, economic, and energy performance of insulation materials used in the building’s envelope. This research can be done using a specific building and different insulation materials applied in an external assembly (either in the vertical or horizontal building envelope) and performing a thermal simulation of the performance of the building for a complete cycle (for example, one year) to calculate the corresponding heating and cooling needs (applying the Portuguese regulation) and then using the 3E-C2C method (mentioned in Section 3.2) to perform an assessment of the life cycle performance from cradle-to-cradle of these assemblies in these three dimensions [20,27]. This was the methodology applied in Section 3.2, as mentioned, to perform an environmental, economic and energy LCA assessment of the performance of 114 different flat roofs solutions integrating different materials (including XPS, low-density and high-density EPS boards, and MW as insulation materials) in their composition [7].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Thermal Insulation Tiles for Flat Roofs

2019

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Envelope insulation and protection is an important technical solution to reduce energy consumption, exterior damage, and environmental impacts in buildings. Thermal insulation tiles are used simultaneously as thermal insulation of the building envelope and protection material of under layers in flat roofs systems. The purpose of this research is to assess the environmental impacts of the life cycle of thermal insulation tiles for flat roofs. This research presents the up-to-date “cradle to gate” environmental performance of thermal insulation tiles for the environmental categories and life-cycle stages defined in European standards on environmental evaluation of building. The results presented in this research were based on site-specific data from a Portuguese factory and resulted from a consistent methodology that is here fully described, including the raw materials extraction and production, and the modelling of energy and transport processes at the production stage of thermal insulation tiles. These results reflect the weight of the raw-materials within the production process of thermal insulation tiles in all environmental categories and show that some life cycle stages, such as transportation of raw materials (A2) and packaging and packaging waste (A3.1 and A3.3, respectively), may not be discarded in a cradle to gate study of a construction material because they can make a significant contribution to some environmental categories. Moreover, complementary results regarding the economic, environmental, and energy performance Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of flat roofs solutions incorporating the thermal insulation tiles studied showed that the influence of the economic costs on the total aggregated costs of these solutions is much higher than that of the environmental costs due to the lower environmental costs of the thermal insulation tiles at the product stage (A1–A3). These costs influenced the corresponding percentage of the environmental costs (between 14% and 18%) and the percentage of the economic costs (between 70% and 75%) in the total aggregated (environmental, economic, and energy) net present value (NPV). Finally, a complementary “cradle to cradle” environmental LCA discussion is presented including the following additional life cycle stages: maintenance and replacement (B2–B4), operational energy use (B6), and end-of-life stage and benefits and loads beyond the system boundary (C1–C4 and D).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Thermal Insulation Tiles for Flat Roofs

2019

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“…If the thermal diffusivity is also considered in the comparison of the environmental, economic, and energy performance of insulation materials used in a buildings envelope, the use of ICB would lead to a thermal delay of the assembly 1.5 times higher than that of other concurring materials with the same thickness (but with higher thermal diffusivity) [ 29 ]. However, the quantification of this advantage of ICB in the three dimensions of performance referred would only be possible by: Considering a specific building and considering different insulation materials applied in an external assembly (taking into account the resulting thermal decays); providing a dynamic thermal simulation of the performance of the building during a whole year to calculate the corresponding heating and cooling needs; applying a method to provide an assessment of the life cycle performance from cradle-to-cradle of these assemblies in these dimensions, such as 3E-C2C [ 30 , 31 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insulation Cork Boards—Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of an Organic Construction Material

et al. 2016

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Envelope insulation is a relevant technical solution to cut energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts in buildings. Insulation Cork Boards (ICB) are a natural thermal insulation material whose production promotes the recycling of agricultural waste. The aim of this paper is to determine and evaluate the environmental impacts of the production, use, and end-of-life processing of ICB. A “cradle-to-cradle” environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed according to International LCA standards and the European standards on the environmental evaluation of buildings. These results were based on site-specific data and resulted from a consistent methodology, fully described in the paper for each life cycle stage: Cork oak tree growth, ICB production, and end-of-life processing-modeling of the carbon flows (i.e., uptakes and emissions), including sensitivity analysis of this procedure; at the production stage—the modeling of energy processes and a sensitivity analysis of the allocation procedures; during building operation—the expected service life of ICB; an analysis concerning the need to consider the thermal diffusivity of ICB in the comparison of the performance of insulation materials. This paper presents the up-to-date “cradle-to-cradle” environmental performance of ICB for the environmental categories and life-cycle stages defined in European standards.

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“…• Product and construction process stages (A1-A5): For the installation of the TIRM in the building, the cost of the renovation described in the construction process as to be considered, except for the costs of workmanship to remove the old render and the paint and for the costs of installation of any scaffolding, on the external surface of the external wall, to complete this operation. These costs were collected from: a Portuguese producer of TIRM with cork as a lightweight aggregate [1]; previous research studies [29]; construction firms, market surveys and building materials suppliers [18]; reference national documents [30]; • Use stage-maintenance, repair and replacement (B2-B4): The cost of replacement, repair and maintenance operations completed in each year defines the economic cost of this stage in year "n" per square metre of external wall; • Use stage-energy cost (B6): The energy used for heating and cooling [31], calculated by the method used in Portuguese codes [32], permits the calculation of the energy cost in year "n" per square metre of external wall; • End-of-life stage (C): Only the costs for transportation and disposal of the materials or building assemblies and the expenses and/or revenues from recycle, reuse, and energy recovery are considered for the economic cost in year 50 per square metre of external wall [33,34]. Table 4.…”

Section: Economic Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Retrofitting of a Buildings’ Envelope: Assessment of the Environmental, Economic and Energy (3E) Performance of a Cork-Based Thermal Insulating Rendering Mortar

et al. 2019

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This paper presents an environmental, economic and energy (3E) assessment of an energy retrofitting of the external walls of a flat of an average building with the most current characteristics used in Portugal. For this intervention, a cork-based (as recycled lightweight aggregate) TIRM (Thermal Insulating Rendering Mortar) was considered. The declared unit was 1 m2 of an external wall for a 50-year study period and the energy and economic costs and savings, as well as the environmental impacts, were analytically modelled and compared for two main alternatives: the reference wall without any intervention and the energetically rehabilitated solution with the application of TIRM. Walls with improved energy performance (with TIRM) show lower economic and environmental impacts: reductions from 6% to 32% in carbon emissions, non-renewable energy consumption and costs during the use stage, which depends on the thickness and relative place where TIRM layers are applied. A worse energy performance is shown by reference walls (without TIRM) during the use stage (corresponding to energy used for heating and cooling), while the improved walls present economic and environmental impacts due to the application of TIRM (including the production, transport and application into the building) that do not exist in the reference walls. The comparison between reference walls and energy-retrofitted ones revealed that reference wall become be more expensive when more demanding operational energy requirements are analysed over a 50-year period, even if renewable materials are more expensive.

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Life-cycle impact ‘cradle to cradle’ of building assemblies

Cited by 17 publications

References 10 publications

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Thermal Insulation Tiles for Flat Roofs

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Thermal Insulation Tiles for Flat Roofs

Insulation Cork Boards—Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of an Organic Construction Material

Energy Retrofitting of a Buildings’ Envelope: Assessment of the Environmental, Economic and Energy (3E) Performance of a Cork-Based Thermal Insulating Rendering Mortar

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