scholarly journals Evaluation Model of Environmental Impacts of Insulation Building Envelopes

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2258
Author(s):  
Qianmiao Yang ◽  
Liyao Kong ◽  
Hui Tong ◽  
Xiaolin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Building Envelopes ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
Entire Life Cycle

Energy consumption during use is the focus of insulation envelope design, but the environmental impact of other stages in the entire life cycle of building envelopes should be of equal concern. In this paper, a model has been developed based on the life-cycle environmental assessment for calculating the environmental impacts of building envelopes. The model proposed will be useful to evaluate the environmental performance of various envelopes to optimize the design of energy-saving envelopes. Consequently, lots of experiments are conducted for environmental impact assessment and analysis for external windows and filler walls with energy-savings in heating areas of China. Four conclusions can be drawn from the analysis. (1) K of building envelope is the design parameter of the greatest impact on environmental performance and has a critical value, which is the value that has the smallest environmental impact over the entire life cycle. (2) The importance of the environmental impact of the building envelope during the life cycle stages is as follows: usage > production > transportation > disposal > construction. The construction process of the thermal insulation wall could be negligible. (3) The choice of regional building materials should consider the distance of transportation, which may be the key factor determining its life cycle environmental performance. (4) Aerated concrete EPS walls and wooden windows are the first choices for envelope construction from the environmental impact throughout the life cycle.

scholarly journals Comparative Analysis of Environmental Impacts of Selected Products

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Fedoryszyn ◽  
M. Brzeziński
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
Entire Life Cycle ◽  
Manufactured Products ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cast Products

Abstract The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate that environmental impacts exerted by manufactured products throughout their entire life cycle are major aspects to be considered, alongside their functional features and cost-effectiveness. One of the available methods to evaluate environmental impacts is known to as the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The study summarises the reports from the literature on the subject of environmental impact assessment. In conclusions, the authors indicate the need for assessing the environmental impact of cast products made from conventional and newly introduced alloys.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 77-83 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Selected ecological settlements

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Merve Küçük ◽  
Fehim Findik
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
Entire Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
The World

Today, the use of fossil-based fuels and construction activities on a global and regional scale have effective climatic and environmental consequences all over the world, leading to disruption of living spaces. For this reason, it is important that the structures have sustainable properties that will reduce environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle. Millions of people go to various countries and become refugees due to world wars and migrations. Here, ecological settlements and the criteria for the settlement are needed in order to make these settlements healthy. The ecological settlements in Turkey (Gaziantep, Bursa and Eskisehir) as well as in the world (China, Germany and Spain), listed the criteria that are necessary for these places, are revised in this review article.

scholarly journals Mass Timber Building Life Cycle Assessment Methodology for the U.S. Regional Case Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 14034
Author(s):  
Hongmei Gu ◽  
Shaobo Liang ◽  
Francesca Pierobon ◽  
Maureen Puettmann ◽  
Indroneil Ganguly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Planning Stage ◽  
Building Life Cycle ◽  
Mass Timber

The building industry currently consumes over a third of energy produced and emits 39% of greenhouse gases globally produced by human activities. The manufacturing of building materials and the construction of buildings make up 11% of those emissions within the sector. Whole-building life-cycle assessment is a holistic and scientific tool to assess multiple environmental impacts with internationally accepted inventory databases. A comparison of the building life-cycle assessment results would help to select materials and designs to reduce total environmental impacts at the early planning stage for architects and developers, and to revise the building code to improve environmental performance. The Nature Conservancy convened a group of researchers and policymakers from governments and non-profit organizations with expertise across wood product life-cycle assessment, forest carbon, and forest products market analysis to address emissions and energy consumption associated with mass timber building solutions. The study disclosed a series of detailed, comparative life-cycle assessments of pairs of buildings using both mass timber and conventional materials. The methodologies used in this study are clearly laid out in this paper for transparency and accountability. A plethora of data exists on the favorable environmental performance of wood as a building material and energy source, and many opportunities appear for research to improve on current practices.

Development of Local Weighting Factors in the Context of LCIA

2014 ◽  
Vol 935 ◽  
pp. 293-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saniye Karaman Oztas ◽  
Leyla Tanacan
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Inventory Analysis ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Weighting Factors ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories

Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is a phase of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in order to quantify various environmental impacts based on the inventory analysis. Weighting although is not the mandatory element of LCIA is the element in which local data becomes important. Potential environmental impacts and the importance of particular impacts can be quite significant among the countries or regions. Determination of the importance degree is possible by weighting of the selected environmental impact categories. Therefore, this study aimed to develop local weighting factors (WFs) by taking the environmental issues into consideration for the building materials produced in Turkey. And 11 environmental impact categories such as global warming, ozone depletion, acidification, photochemical ozone formation, eutrophication, fossil fuel depletion, mineral resource depletion, water depletion, land use, indoor air quality and waste were selected considering environmental impacts caused by the building materials and environmental issues in Turkey. And WFs of these categories for Turkey were determined by using a panel approach. Thus, it can be possible to assess environmental impacts of building materials by using local data.

Optimization of Building Envelope Components Based on Life Cycle Environmental Impacts and Costs

2014 ◽  
Vol 899 ◽  
pp. 93-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Medgyasszay ◽  
Zsuzsa Szalay
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Envelope ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Operational Energy

Recent national and international building regulations on the energy performance of buildings focus mainly on the reduction of operational energy. This can be achieved by increasing the energy efficiency of the building, installing highly efficient building service systems and applying renewable energy sources. However, these measures have a price in terms of investment costs, and also in terms of environmental impacts. The life-cycle of building materials, building constructions or whole buildings from cradle to grave can be assessed using the method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Cost analysis (LCC). These tools take into account not only the heating energy saving due to additional insulation, but also the embodied environmental impacts and costs of the investment. In this paper, the optimum thickness of various insulation materials, including natural and recycled materials is examined considering three main environmental indicators and global costs. The analysis is performed for a typical Hungarian single-family house subject to retrofit.

scholarly journals Eco-Design of Energy Production Systems: The Problem of Renewable Energy Capacity Recycling

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4339
Author(s):  
Svetlana Ratner ◽  
Konstantin Gomonov ◽  
Svetlana Revinova ◽  
Inna Lazanyuk
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Wind Power ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
Entire Life Cycle

Due to the rapid development of recycling technologies in recent years, more data have appeared in the literature on the environmental impact of the final stages of the life cycle of wind and solar energy. The use of these data in the eco-design of modern power generation systems can help eliminate the mistakes and shortcomings when planning wind and solar power plants and make them more eco-efficient. The aim of this study is to extend current knowledge of the environmental impacts of most common renewables throughout the entire life cycle. It examines recent literature data on life cycle assessments of various technologies for recycling of wind turbines and photovoltaic (PV) panels and develops the recommendations for the eco-design of energy systems based on solar and wind power. The study draws several general conclusions. (i) The contribution of further improvements in PV’s recycling technologies to environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle is insignificant. Therefore, it is more beneficial to focus further efforts on economic parameters, in particular, on achieving the economic feasibility of recycling small volumes of PV-waste. (ii) For wind power, the issue of transporting bulky components of wind turbines to and from the installation location is critical for improving the eco-design of the entire life cycle.

scholarly journals Factors Allowing Users to Influence the Environmental Performance of Their T-Shirt

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2498
Author(s):  
Mélanie Schmutz ◽  
Roland Hischier ◽  
Claudia Som
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment Study ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
Assessment Study ◽  
Use Phase ◽  
Lower Temperature ◽  
Global Data

Cotton t-shirts are a basic clothing item that everyone possesses. To date, no studies have taken into account the consumers’ perspective, even though they can play an important role regarding the actual environmental impact of their clothing items. Therefore, a life cycle assessment study was performed in order to inform the public about the environmental impacts of a typical cotton t-shirt and the relevance of consumer behavior (i.e., washing and drying) on the overall impacts along the entire life cycle of such a t-shirt. The aim was to provide hints, allowing users to reduce the impacts of their t-shirts. While the production phase was based on global data, the use phase focused on Switzerland as the study was established in the context of an exhibition in the Textile Museum in St. Gallen (Switzerland). With this study, it was found that users have various choices in order to make their t-shirt more sustainable. Wearing the t-shirt throughout its entire life expectancy was found to be the most important factor influencing the overall environmental performance of such a clothing item. The relevance of filling the washing machine to maximum capacity, washing at a lower temperature, or using a tumbler was also illustrated. In addition, choosing materials other than cotton or choosing textiles labelled for lower environmental impacts during production could further improve the environmental performance of t-shirts.

Excellent environmental performance of beet sugar production in the Netherlands

2020 ◽  
pp. 161-165
Author(s):  
Bertram de Crom ◽  
Jasper Scholten ◽  
Janjoris van Diepen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Water Consumption ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Cane Sugar ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Beet Sugar ◽  
Glucose Syrup

To get more insight in the environmental performance of the Suiker Unie beet sugar, Blonk Consultants performed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study on beet sugar, cane sugar and glucose syrup. The system boundaries of the sugar life cycle are set from cradle to regional storage at the Dutch market. For this study 8 different scenarios were evaluated. The first scenario is the actual sugar production at Suiker Unie. Scenario 2 until 7 are different cane sugar scenarios (different countries of origin, surplus electricity production and pre-harvest burning of leaves are considered). Scenario 8 concerns the glucose syrup scenario. An important factor in the environmental impact of 1kg of sugar is the sugar yield per ha. Total sugar yield per ha differs from 9t/ha sugar for sugarcane to 15t/ha sugar for sugar beet (in 2017). Main conclusion is that the production of beet sugar at Suiker Unie has in general a lower impact on climate change, fine particulate matter, land use and water consumption, compared to cane sugar production (in Brazil and India) and glucose syrup. The impact of cane sugar production on climate change and water consumption is highly dependent on the country of origin, especially when land use change is taken into account. The environmental impact of sugar production is highly dependent on the co-production of bioenergy, both for beet and cane sugar.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document