Comparison of Environmental Performance of Single-Family House and Multi-Storey Apartment in Turkey using Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract In recent years, there has been a significant transition from multi-storey buildings to single-family houses especially due to COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, people prefer to live in single-family houses or detached houses where they have more free space in outside of the house. The aim of this study is to quantify and compare the environmental performance of a single-family house and multi-storey apartment building in Turkey throughout their life cycle with cradle-to-grave approach. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based on ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 was used to analyse the environmental impacts of the single-family house and multi-storey apartment buildings. The functional unit was chosen as 1m2 of floor area of a house over their lifespan (50 years). With cradle-to-grave approach of the LCA, the system boundaries for the environmental assessment covers the pre-operation, operation and post-operation stages. The results of this LCA study revealed that majority of the environmental impacts occurs at operation phase for both single-family house and multi-storey apartment. The operation stage has the highest impact with 79% and 78% share of the global warming potential (GWP) for single-family house and the multi-storey apartment, respectively. In comparison of environmental impact results, GWP of the multi-storey apartment per m2 of floor area is 30% lower than single-family house. The environmental impacts of the operation phase have significant importance on the overall environmental performance of both single-family house and multi-storey apartment. The results showed that electricity consumption and steel usage are the main contributors of the environmental impacts coming from the operation and pre-operation phases, respectively. To pave the way to a sustainable future, the building industry must strive to use of renewable energy sources and sustainable construction materials in order to reduce their environmental impacts with a sustainable approach.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Maize-Germ Oil Production and The Use of Bioenergy to Mitigate Environmental Impacts: A Gate-To-Gate Case Study

Resources ◽

10.3390/resources8020060 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 60 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Mattias Gaglio ◽

Elena Tamburini ◽

Francesco Lucchesi ◽

Vassilis Aschonitis ◽

Anna Atti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Food Industry ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Industrial Processing ◽

The Impact

The need to reduce the environmental impacts of the food industry is increasing together with the dramatic increment of global food demand. Circulation strategies such as the exploitation of self-produced renewable energy sources can improve ecological performances of industrial processes. However, evidence is needed to demonstrate and characterize such environmental benefits. This study assessed the environmental performances of industrial processing of maize edible oil, whose energy provision is guaranteed by residues biomasses. A gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was applied for a large-size factory of Northern Italy to describe: (i) the environmental impacts related to industrial processing and (ii) the contribution of residue-based bioenergy to their mitigation, through the comparison with a reference system based on conventional energy. The results showed that oil refinement is the most impacting phase for almost all the considered impact categories. The use of residue-based bioenergy was found to drastically reduce the emissions for all the impact categories. Moreover, Cumulative Energy Demand analysis revealed that the use of biomass residues increased energy efficiency through a reduction of the total energy demand of the industrial process. The study demonstrates that the exploitation of residue-based bioenergy can be a sustainable solution to improve environmental performances of the food industry, while supporting circular economy.

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Importance of building services in ecological building assessments

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/201911103061 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 111 ◽

pp. 03061 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michaela Lambertz ◽

Sebastian Theißen ◽

Jannick Höper ◽

Reinhard Wimmer

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Green Building ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Simplified Approach ◽

Ecological Requirements ◽

Building Information ◽

Building Life Cycle

The new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2018 and the GebäudeEnergieGesetz (GEG) tightened the requirements for energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources in buildings at EU and national levels. Environmental impacts from manufacturing, dismantling and recycling of buildings are not taken into account. Green Building Certification Systems, such as the DGNB or BNB systems, are therefore the only ones that (voluntarily) set holistic, ecological requirements for buildings. Based on a Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment, the entire building life cycle and its environmental effects are evaluated. While building services in this context are usually only included in such a simplified approach, the full scope of the produced environmental impacts are underestimated and misjudged for the reduction of emissions and other environmental impacts. This publication uses the results of a life cycle assessment of a typical office building (in Germany) to show the amount of influence building services have on environmental impacts of buildings. Furthermore the study shows an approach how the very high pro-curement and calculation effort of LCA can be reduced by linking the Building Information Modelling (BIM) Method and LCA models to enable a significantly more efficient and easier calculation process, es-pecially for building services.

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Sustainable Construction - Environmental Impacts Assessment of Architectural Elements and Building Services

International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/jera.47.77 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. 77-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Andrea Moňoková ◽

Silvia Vilčeková

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Building Materials ◽

Sustainable Construction ◽

Building Structures ◽

Single Family ◽

Architectural Elements ◽

Ozone Formation Potential ◽

Environmental Technologies

Increasing concerns about negative environmental impacts of building structures call for higher demands on the design of environmental friendly buildings. This article is aimed at assessing the overall environmental impact of buildings throughout its life cycle as well as on environmental impact of all building materials and building services for single-family homes. This analysis examines the role of utilized green environmental technologies for the following selected impact categories: GWP - global warming potential, EP - eutrophication potential, AP - acidification potential POCP and photochemical ozone formation potential expressed in kg CO2eq, PO43-eq, SO2eq and ethylene within the “Cradle to gate with options” boundary. The LCA assessment methodology and eToolLCD software have been used to model the effects of houses’ life cycle.

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The Application of the Life-Cycle Assessment in the Building Sector: An Italian Case Study

MCAST Journal of Applied Research & Practice ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0014.4360 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 91-108

Author(s):

Maurizio Cellura ◽

Francesco Guarino ◽

Sonia Longo

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Building Materials ◽

Life Cycle Thinking ◽

Single Family ◽

Building Sector ◽

Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽

Use Of Resources ◽

Whole Life Cycle

The building sector is one of the most relevant in terms of generation of wealth and occupation, but it is also responsible for significant consumption of natural resources and the generation of environmental impacts, mainly greenhouse gas emissions. In order to improve the eco profile of buildings during their life-cycle, the reduction of the use of resources and the minimization of environmental impacts have become, in the last years, some of the main objectives to achieve in the design of sustainable buildings. The application of the life-cycle thinking approach, looking at the whole life cycle of buildings, is of paramount importance for a real decarbonization and reduction of the environmental impacts of the building sector. This paper presents an application of the life-cycle assessment methodology for assessing the energy and environmental life-cycle impacts of a single-family house located in the Mediterranean area in order to identify the building components and life-cycle steps that are responsible of the higher burdens. The assessment showed that the largest impacts are located in the use stage; energy for heating is significant but not dominant, while the contribution of electricity utilized for households and other equipment resulted very relevant. High environmental impacts are also due to manufacture and transport of building materials and components.

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Life Cycle Assessment on Different Synthetic Routes of ZIF-8 Nanomaterials

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14164998 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (16) ◽

pp. 4998

Author(s):

Vasileios Ntouros ◽

Ioannis Kousis ◽

Dimitra Papadaki ◽

Anna Laura Pisello ◽

Margarita Niki Assimakopoulos

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Energy Use ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Electricity Consumption ◽

Research Activity ◽

Synthetic Routes ◽

The Impact

In the last twenty years, research activity around the environmental applications of metal–organic frameworks has bloomed due to their CO2 capture ability, tunable properties, porosity, and well-defined crystalline structure. Thus, hundreds of MOFs have been developed. However, the impact of their production on the environment has not been investigated as thoroughly as their potential applications. In this work, the environmental performance of various synthetic routes of MOF nanoparticles, in particular ZIF-8, is assessed through a life cycle assessment. For this purpose, five representative synthesis routes were considered, and synthesis data were obtained based on available literature. The synthesis included different solvents (de-ionized water, methanol, dimethylformamide) as well as different synthetic steps (i.e., hours of drying, stirring, precursor). The findings revealed that the main environmental weak points identified during production were: (a) the use of dimethylformamide (DMF) and methanol (MeOH) as substances impacting environmental sustainability, which accounted for more than 85% of the overall environmental impacts in those synthetic routes where they were utilized as solvents and as cleaning agents at the same time; (b) the electricity consumption, especially due to the Greek energy mix which is fossil-fuel dependent, and accounted for up to 13% of the overall environmental impacts in some synthetic routes. Nonetheless, for the optimization of the impacts provided by the energy use, suggestions are made based on the use of alternative, cleaner renewable energy sources, which (for the case of wind energy) will decrease the impacts by up to 2%.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Environmental Impacts and Total Cost of Power Cable

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.872.412 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 872 ◽

pp. 412-419

Author(s):

Ren Hu ◽

Zhao Xia Jing ◽

Qing Hua Wu ◽

Ren Bao Yan ◽

Zhe Cheng Cao

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Operating Cost ◽

Cost Calculation ◽

Power Cable ◽

Total Cost ◽

Production Phase ◽

Power Load ◽

Operation Phase

For responding the national demand of energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) and promoting the green purchase of power equipments, it’s highly of importance to perform the analytic process of environmental impacts and total cost in lifetime for power equipments. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an analytic approach which completely supervises the concerned objective within its life cycle. In this paper the life cycle is hypothetically divided into three main phases, respectively, the production phase, the operation phase and the recycling phase. On the basis of LCA, this study develops a model regarding the environmental impact analysis and total cost calculation for power cable within its life cycle. This model computes the emission level of main pollutants at each stage and illustrates the trend of total cost change with respect to changeable power load parameters. The experimental research indicates that the developed model is practically useful and rational with conclusions. In terms of environmental impacts of power cable, the effect from the production phase mostly lies in the discharge of abundant waste water. And the effect from the operation phase mainly concentrates upon the energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gas. However, the effect from the recycling phase is very slight. Meanwhile, as for the perspective of total cost of power cable, the operating cost increases obviously as the power load arises.

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Environmental Impacts Associated with Intensive Production in Pig Farms in Mexico through Life Cycle Assessment

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132011248 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (20) ◽

pp. 11248

Author(s):

Mario Rafael Giraldi-Díaz ◽

Eduardo Castillo-González ◽

Lorena De Medina-Salas ◽

Raúl Velásquez-De la Cruz ◽

Héctor Daniel Huerta-Silva

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Pig Slurry ◽

Growth Phases ◽

Product System ◽

Life Cycle Assessment Methodology ◽

Intensive Production ◽

Pig Farm

In this research, environmental impacts associated with the intensive production of pigs on a farm in Mexico were determined through the application of life cycle assessment methodology. The research was focused on the following stages of the product system: (i) pig rearing and growth phases; (ii) production operations in the pig-house; (iii) the supply of feed. The life cycle inventory database was mainly made up of data collected in field visits to local farms. The functional unit was defined as one finished swine weighing 124 kg. The results for the selected impact categories of carbon, water, and energy footprints were 538.62 kg CO2eq, 21.34 m3, and 1773.79 MJ, respectively. The greatest impact was generated in the final stages of pig fattening, mainly due to the large quantity of feed supplied. The impacts caused by operation of the pig farm were less significant, their contribution in all cases was less than a third of the total quantified values. The energy conversion of pig slurry improves the environmental performance of the product system by reducing the carbon footprint.

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LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT AND SHORT-TERM MEASUREMENTS OF INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OF A WOODEN FAMILY HOUSE

The 11th International Conference ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING 11th ICEE SELECTED PAPERS ◽

10.3846/enviro.2020.643 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Silvia Vilčeková ◽

Katarína Harčárová ◽

Andrea Moňoková ◽

Eva Krídlová Burdová

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Environmental Quality ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Physical Parameters ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Short Term ◽

Family House

Nowadays, there is an increased trend in the construction of nearly zero energy buildings which can be also characterized as green buildings. Several studies confirm that wooden buildings fulfil these requirements. However, there is no detailed research related to the quality of the indoor environment in new wooden family houses. For this reason, this paper focuses on monitoring of the indoor environmental quality in a selected wooden family house. Short-term measurements are aimed at investigation of physical parameters (air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity and noise) and chemical factors such as concentrations of particulate matters and CO2. At the same time, environmental impacts were also assessed for impact categories such as: global warming potential (GWP), ozone depletion potential (ODP) acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) ex-pressed as kilogram CO2eq, CFC11eq, SO2eq, PO43–eq and kilogram of C2H4eq within “Cradle to Grave” boundary by using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The main contribution of this study is demonstration that wooden build-ings have substantial share in the reduction of environmental impacts. So far, results indicate that the design of wooden houses correspond with the increasing demands of occupants in terms of environmental, social and energy performance.

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