INDUSTRIAL BUILDING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA)

CASE STUDY USING THREE DIFFERENT LCA SOFTWARE TOOLS

JOHANNA MERO, RAMBOLL FINLAND OY 31.5.2016 - WBC16 - TAMPERE HALL

BACKGROUND

- In the EU, buildings and the construction sector account for:

- 42 % of final energy consumption

- 35 % of GHG emissions

- 50 % of extracted raw materials

- 30 % of overall water consumption

- Legislation and regulation is becoming stricter and the industry is also developing voluntary actions and initiatives to tackle these problems.

- Awareness of industry actors is rising simultaneously with demand from the clients’ side

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool that

helps quantifying the environmental impacts

over the whole building life cycle

Only the

measurable is

manageable

The results can be

used to support

decision making

throughout the

project

1. Quantify the environmental life cycle impacts of an industrial building.

2. See how the results settle in line with existing LCA results obtained for residential and office buildings.

3. Find out whether the results differ when calculated using three different LCA software tools.

4. Interview industry actors to form an understanding of building LCA markets.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS & GOALS

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LCA PROCESS (SIMPLIFIED)

1. Construction material bill of quantities (BIM)

2. Assumptions and best estimates:

• Transportation distances, maintenance & EOL scenarios…

3. Modelling of product system in LCA software tools

Embodied life cycle impacts

4. Energy simulations

Operational energy use

5. Emission factors

Operational impacts

Total LCA results

RESULTS

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Embodied impacts

Building life-

cycle stage

Global

Warming

Potential

Share of

total

impacts

kg CO2e %

A1-A3 4,66E+06 84,60 %

A4 1,37E+05 2,49 %

B1-B3 5,20E-02 0,00 %

B4-B5 2,11E+05 3,83 %

C1 5,87E+04 1,07 %

C2 2,94E+04 0,53 %

C3-C4 4,12E+05 7,48 %

Total 5,51E+06 100

Operational impacts 2,13E+07 kg CO2 eq 29,3 CO2 eq/m2,year

Total impacts 2,68E+07 kg CO2 eq 2136 kg CO2 eq/m2 35,6 kg CO2 eq/m2,year

17 %

1 %

1 %

79 %

2 %

Construction Materials

Transportation to site

Use, maintenance andrepairOperational energy use

End-of-life

RESULTS – CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS – 3 DIFFERENT TOOLS

SimaPro 360Optimi ILMARI

A1-3

Construction

materials

manufacturing

4,69E+06 4,66E+06 5,20E+06

Building life-cycle stage

0,E+00 1,E+06 2,E+06 3,E+06 4,E+06 5,E+06 6,E+06

SimaPro

360Optimi

ILMARI

Greenhouse gas emissions in kg CO2 eq

• Industrial building LCA results in line with previous research

• Commercial LCA software tools developed for industry use are able to produce results that are comparable to building LCA results obtained in scientific research

• Tool selection doesn’t seem to significantly affect the results

CONCLUSIONS

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WHY LCA?

- To steer building design towards solution with lower environmental impacts

- Quality assurance

- Marketing and communication opportunities

- Way to separate from competitors

- To gain points in environmental certification schemes:

- LEEDv4 New Construction – MRc Building life-cycle impact reduction (3-4 p)

- BREEAM International 2016 New Construction – Mat01 Life cycle impacts (1-6 p)

- DGNB, HQE…

- Monetary benefits

31.5.2016

INDUSTRIAL BUILDING LCA

QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION

End slide

Johanna Mero

M.Sc. (Tech.), Consultant, LEED AP (BD+C) Green Building, Real Estate Consulting M +385 40 558 7101fi _________________ Ramboll Finland Oy Säterinkatu 6 02601 Espoo FINLAND