Water Consumption and Environmental Impact of Multifamily Residential Buildings: A Life Cycle Assessment Study

Water use in buildings accounts for a large share in global freshwater consumption where research on the impacts of life cycle water use receive little or no attention. Moreover, there is very limited knowledge regarding such impacts that focus on the life cycle emissions from water consumption in building environments in the world’s most water-stressed countries. Hence, this study attempted to quantify the environmental impacts of operational water use in a multi-family residential building through a life cycle assessment (LCA). A small part of a Middle Eastern country, Doha (Qatar), has been selected for the primary assessment, while water-use impact in Miami (Florida) was chosen as a second case study, as both locations fall into similar climate zone according to ASHRAE Climate Zone Map. The LCA score indicated much higher impacts in the Doha case study compared to Miami. The variation in the result is mainly attributed to the raw water treatment stage in Doha, which involves energy-intensive thermal desalination. Again, relative comparison of the annual water and electricity use impacts for the modeled building was performed at the final stage for both locations. Water use was attributable for 18% of the environmental impacts in Miami, while this value increased to 35% in Doha. This initial assembled LCA result will be beneficial to both water authorities and building research communities in establishing more sustainable water use policies for specific regions/countries that will ultimately benefit the overall building environment.

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Life-Cycle Assessment of a Rural Terraced House: A Struggle with Sustainability of Building Renovations

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14092472 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (9) ◽

pp. 2472

Author(s):

Karel Struhala ◽

Milan Ostrý

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Energy Sources ◽

Construction Sector ◽

Building Stock ◽

Existing Building ◽

New Construction ◽

Consumption Energy

Contemporary research stresses the need to reduce mankind’s environmental impacts and achieve sustainability. One of the keys to this is the construction sector. New buildings have to comply with strict limits regarding resource consumption (energy, water use, etc.). However, they make up only a fraction of the existing building stock. Renovations of existing buildings are therefore essential for the reduction of the environmental impacts in the construction sector. This paper illustrates the situation using a case study of a rural terraced house in a village near Brno, Czech Republic. It compares the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the original house and its proposed renovation as well as demolition followed by new construction. The LCA covers both the initial embodied environmental impacts (EEIs) and the 60-year operation of the house with several variants of energy sources. The results show that the proposed renovation would reduce overall environmental impacts (OEIs) of the house by up to 90% and the demolition and new construction by up to 93% depending on the selected energy sources. As such, the results confirm the importance of renovations and the installation of environmentally-friendly energy sources for achieving sustainability in the construction sector. They also show the desirability of the replacement of inefficient old buildings by new construction in specific cases.

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LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF TECHNICAL BUILDING SERVICES OF LARGE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING STOCKS USING SEMANTIC 3D CITY MODELS

ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-annals-vi-4-w1-2020-85-2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol VI-4/W1-2020 ◽

pp. 85-92

Author(s):

H. Harter ◽

B. Willenborg ◽

W. Lang ◽

T. H. Kolbe

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Demand ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Residential Building ◽

Building Stock ◽

3D City Models ◽

Methodical Approach ◽

Operational Energy ◽

City Models

Abstract. Reducing the demand for non-renewable resources and the resulting environmental impact is an objective of sustainable development, to which buildings contribute significantly. In order to realize the goal of reaching a climate-neutral building stock, it must first be analyzed and evaluated in order to develop optimization strategies. The life cycle based consideration and assessment of buildings plays a key role in this process. Approaches and tools already exist for this purpose, but they mainly take the operational energy demand of buildings and not a life cycle based approach into account, especially when assessing technical building services (TBS). Therefore, this paper presents and applies a methodical approach for the life cycle based assessment of the TBS of large residential building stocks, based on semantic 3D city models (CityGML). The methodical approach developed for this purpose describes the procedure for calculating the operational energy demand (already validated) and the heating load of the building, the dimensioning of the TBS components and the calculation of the life cycle assessment. The application of the methodology is illustrated in a case study with over 115,000 residential buildings from Munich, Germany. The study shows that the methodology calculates reliable results and that a significant reduction of the life cycle based energy demand can be achieved by refurbishment measures/scenarios. Nevertheless, the goal of achieving a climate-neutral building stock is a challenge from a life cycle perspective.

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From Buildings’ End of Life to Aggregate Recycling under a Circular Economic Perspective: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Case Study

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13179625 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (17) ◽

pp. 9625

Author(s):

Ambroise Lachat ◽

Konstantinos Mantalovas ◽

Tiffany Desbois ◽

Oumaya Yazoghli-Marzouk ◽

Anne-Sophie Colas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

End Of Life ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Open Loop ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Construction And Demolition Waste ◽

Recycled Aggregates ◽

Demolition Waste

The demolition of buildings, apart from being energy intensive and disruptive, inevitably produces construction and demolition waste (C&Dw). Unfortunately, even today, the majority of this waste ends up underexploited and not considered as valuable resources to be re-circulated into a closed/open loop process under the umbrella of circular economy (CE). Considering the amount of virgin aggregates needed in civil engineering applications, C&Dw can act as sustainable catalyst towards the preservation of natural resources and the shift towards a CE. This study completes current research by presenting a life cycle inventory compilation and life cycle assessment case study of two buildings in France. The quantification of the end-of-life environmental impacts of the two buildings and subsequently the environmental impacts of recycled aggregates production from C&Dw was realized using the framework of life cycle assessment (LCA). The results indicate that the transport of waste, its treatment, and especially asbestos’ treatment are the most impactful phases. For example, in the case study of the first building, transport and treatment of waste reached 35% of the total impact for global warming. Careful, proactive, and strategic treatment, geolocation, and transport planning is recommended for the involved stakeholders and decision makers in order to ensure minimal sustainability implications during the implementation of CE approaches for C&Dw.

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Impacts of River Water Consumption on Aquatic Biodiversity in Life Cycle Assessment—A Proposed Method, and a Case Study for Europe

Environmental Science & Technology ◽

10.1021/es4048686 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 48 (6) ◽

pp. 3236-3244 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Danielle M. Tendall ◽

Stefanie Hellweg ◽

Stephan Pfister ◽

Mark A. J. Huijbregts ◽

Gérard Gaillard

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

River Water ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Aquatic Biodiversity

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Environmental impacts of a hydrometallurgical process for electronic waste treatment: A life cycle assessment case study

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.040 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 140 ◽

pp. 1204-1216 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Elena Maria Iannicelli-Zubiani ◽

Martina Irene Giani ◽

Francesca Recanati ◽

Giovanni Dotelli ◽

Stefano Puricelli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Waste Treatment ◽

Electronic Waste ◽

Hydrometallurgical Process

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Evaluating the Environmental Impact Score of a Residential Building Using Life Cycle Assessment

Research Anthology on Environmental and Societal Well-Being Considerations in Buildings and Architecture ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-9032-4.ch006 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 142-159

Author(s):

Manish Sakhlecha ◽

Samir Bajpai ◽

Rajesh Kumar Singh

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Natural Resources ◽

Impact Assessment ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Residential Building ◽

Resource Depletion ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Construction Methods ◽

Growing Economy

Buildings consume major amount of energy as well as natural resources leading to negative environmental impacts like resource depletion and pollution. The current task for the construction sector is to develop an evaluation tool for rating of buildings based on their environmental impacts. There are various assessment tools and models developed by different agencies in different countries to evaluate building's effect on environment. Although these tools have been successfully used and implemented in the respective regions of their origin, the problems of application occur, especially during regional adaptation in other countries due to peculiarities associated with the specific geographic location, climatic conditions, construction methods and materials. India is a rapidly growing economy with exponential increase in housing sector. Impact assessment model for a residential building has been developed based on life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. The life cycle impact assessment score was obtained for a sample house considering fifteen combinations of materials paired with 100% thermal electricity and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination, applying normalization and weighting to the LCA results. The LCA score of portland slag cement with burnt clay red brick and 70%-30% thermal-solar combination (PSC+TS+RB) was found to have the best score and ordinary Portland cement with flyash brick and 100% thermal power (OPC+T+FAB) had the worst score, showing the scope for further improvement in LCA model to include positive scores for substitution of natural resources with industrial waste otherwise polluting the environment.

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Assessing Water Consumption of S-PVC Resin Manufacturing Process by Life Cycle Assessment

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.931-932.619 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 931-932 ◽

pp. 619-623

Author(s):

Sun Olapiriyakul

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Use ◽

Manufacturing Process ◽

Eastern Region ◽

Industrial Manufacturing ◽

Sustainable Water Resources Management ◽

Local Water

The rapid growth of industry has resulted in increased severity of water scarcity in the Eastern region of Thailand over the past decade. The assessment of water use by industrial manufacturing processes located in areas experiencing water stress is necessary to ensure a sustainable water resources management. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the use of life cycle assessment as a tool for assessing water use in an industrial manufacturing process. A case study of S-PVC resin manufacturing process located in Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate, Rayong province, Thailand, is presented. The studying results indicate that the amount of water used to produce 1 Kg of S-PVC resin is 14.72 liters, of which 6.22 liters are withdrawn from local water resources. Additionally, the direct and indirect water use along the production supply chain is accounted for in a streamlined life cycle assessment.

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Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Steel and Concrete Construction Frames: A Case Study of Two Residential Buildings in Iran

Buildings ◽

10.3390/buildings10030054 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 54

Author(s):

Amir Oladazimi ◽

Saeed Mansour ◽

Seyed Abbas Hosseinijou

Keyword(s):

Global Warming ◽

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Global Warming Potential ◽

Residential Buildings ◽

Steel Frame ◽

Complete Analysis ◽

Environmental Damage ◽

Concrete Frame

Given the fact that during the recent years the majority of buildings in Iran have been constructed either on steel or concrete frames, it is essential to investigate the environmental impacts of materials used in such constructions. For this purpose, two multi-story residential buildings in Tehran with a similar function have been considered in this study. One building was constructed with a steel frame and the other was constructed with a concrete frame. Using the life cycle assessment tool, a complete analysis of all the stages of a building’s life cycle from raw material acquisition to demolition and recycling of wastes was carried out. In this research, the environmental impacts included global warming potential in 100 years, acidification, eutrophication potential, human toxicity (cancer and non-cancer effects), resource depletion (water and mineral), climate change, fossil fuel consumption, air acidification and biotoxicity. It could be concluded from the results that the total pollution of the concrete frame in all eleven aforementioned impact factors was almost 219,000 tonnes higher than that of the steel frame. Moreover, based on the results, the concrete frame had poorer performance in all but one impact factor. With respect to global warming potential, the findings indicated there were two types of organic and non-organic gases that had an impact on global warming. Among non-organic emissions, CO2 had the biggest contribution to global warming potential, while among organic emissions, methane was the top contributor. These findings suggest the use of steel frames in the building industry in Iran to prevent further environmental damage; however, in the future, more research studies in this area are needed to completely investigate all aspects of decision on the choice of building frames, including economic and social aspects.

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