Multi Life Cycle Assessment: A Potential Assessment Method for Product Lifespan and Environmental Performance

Energy efficiency investments in existing buildings are an effective way of reducing the environmental impact of the building stock. Even though policies in the European Union and elsewhere promote a unilateral focus on operational energy reduction, scientific studies highlight the importance of applying a life cycle perspective to energy refurbishment. However, life cycle assessment is often perceived as being complicated and the results difficult to interpret by the construction sector. There is also a lack of guidelines regarding the sustainable ratio between the embodied and accumulated operational impact. The scope of this study is to introduce a life cycle assessment method for building refurbishment that utilizes familiar economic performance tools, namely return on investment and annual yield. The aim is to use the introduced method to analyze a case building with a sustainability profile. The building was refurbished in order to reduce its operational energy use. The introduced method is compatible with a theory of minimum sustainable environmental performance that may be developed through backcasting from defined energy and GHG emissions objectives. The proposed approach will hopefully allow development of sustainable refurbishment objectives that can support the choice of refurbishment investments.

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Impact of Supply Chain Solutions on Environmental Performance of Biomass Use – LCA-based Research Case

Valahian Journal of Economic Studies ◽

10.1515/vjes-2017-0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 57-66

Author(s):

Tomasz Nitkiewicz ◽

Agnieszka Ociepa-Kubicka

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Supply Chain ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Environmental Policies ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Steam Boiler ◽

Production Facility ◽

Perform Sensitivity Analysis

Abstract The article presents the activities of selected company - biomass manufacturer and user - with regard to environmental impact of biomass supply chain solutions. The biomass production facility of Biomass User Company is one of the most modern plant in Central Europe. It uses wooden and agricultural biomass to produce heat in biomass-fired steam boiler. The objective of the paper is to investigate the environmental impact with the use of life cycle assessment method. In our study, we define different scenarios for biomass transportation, concerning its supply as well as distribution. Life cycle assessment method is used to estimate environmental impact and to perform sensitivity analysis on transport modes, fuel mix structure and destination of self-cropped biomass. LCA ReCiPe endpoint indicator is used to measure environmental performance. As the results show, transport efforts are not significant factor while environmental impacts are concerned but are rather impact intensive type of activity and should be addressed with company environmental policies.

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