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Source publication
Purpose
The main goal of this paper was to analyse the environmental profile of a structural component of a wooden house: a ventilated wooden wall, by combining two environmental methodologies: one quantitative, the life cycle assessment (LCA) and another qualitative, the design for the environment (DfE).
Methods
The LCA study covers the whole life...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... functional unit selected corresponds to a ventilated wooden wall (~169 kg) with a total area of 2.40 m 2 and a heat transfer coefficient of 0.37 W·m -1 ·K -1 (Helmer and Walker 2006). Figure 1 illustrates the characteristics of the structure under study. The product basically comprises a structure made up with boards [MDF and oriented strand board (OSB)] and wood (pine and Brazilian cedar). Moreover, rock wool, gypsum fibre and synthetic panels are used to reduce noise and avoid condensation as well as steel screws to join the different parts. The final product is var- nished with beautification oil for its ...
Citations
... LCA is an environmental management tool of a quantitative nature and its results come from the mapping of all emissions and resource consumption of a production process, providing support for calculating the environmental impacts related to them (Hauschild, Rosenbaum, Olsen, 2018). From a detailed study of the life cycle, it is possible to find points for improvement in production processes, which contributes to better environmental management and decisionmaking in favor of the sustainability of production processes (ISO, 2006a;ILCD 2010;González-García et al., 2012). This comprehensive view from a life cycle perspective is one of the greatest potentialities of LCA, however this also imposes simplifications and generalizations in the study modeling, causing uncertainties in the mapping of resource consumption and emissions, and therefore, it is more correctly said that LCA calculates potential environmental impacts (Hauschild, Rosenbaum, Olsen, 2018). ...
... Although the time frame was established between 2000 and April 2020, it is observed that the selection of papers resulted in more recent publications, the oldest being dated 2012 (Robertson, Lam, Cole;2012). From 2014 onwards, there was an increase in publications, culminating in 13 publications in 2019, see FIGURE 3. As the search in the databases took place at the beginning of 2020, only 2 papers published this year were found within the defined criteria. ...
Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) is an engineered wood material that has been used in civil construction in structural functions previously reserved for materials such as steel or concrete. As it is a renewable material and promotes carbon sequestration, its use in civil construction is linked to mitigating global warming promoted by the industry. However, the increase in demand for this material raises questions about sustainability and what the environmental burden would be resulting from its mass production. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an environmental management tool that can analyze this product chain as it maps and quantifies emissions and resource consumption from the production process, providing support for the calculation and analysis of environmental impacts. The goal of this study was to observe how the most recent research has been developed methodologically in terms of scope and what are the main scientific gaps presented in LCA studies of CLT material throughout its life cycle. To this end, a systematic literature review was carried out based on the Systematic Search Flow (SSF) method by Ferenhof and Fernandes (2014). The review points out the growing interest of the scientific community in the environmental profile of the product and the scope definitions were mostly cradle-to-grave study boundaries; the most applied functional unit is m² of building; impact analysis focus on quantifying global warming potential, energy resource consumption and carbon sequestration. The studies point to the end of life and the accounting of the material's biogenic emissions as scientific gaps, as well as the lack of studies with Brazilian data.
... Furthermore, lifecycle evaluation is broadly utilised in building design to crosscheck various options. Many researchers have concentrated on construction resolutions, such as diverse kinds of building envelopes (Gonzalez-García et al., 2012;Islam et al., 2014;Monteiro & Freire, 2012), green roofs, and building construction (Pérez et al., 2012;Cerón-Palma et al., 2013). In these studies, the characteristics utilised to crosscheck diverse options are the formation of the construction mechanism, the materials utilised in every resolution, and the building's location (Ramesh et al., 2012;Marceau & VanGeem, 2006;Richman et al., 2009). ...
In the context of sustainable buildings, an ecological study of building and insulating materials is critical since it may assist affirm or shift the path of new technology development. Utilising sustainable material is a part of the sustainable improvement. For this reason, material fabrication is the primary process for the energy usage and release of intense environmental gaseous. The fabrication of the insulation and building materials, as in every fabrication process, comprises an energy consumption of crude materials in addition to the pollutants’ release. In buildings, insulation is a relevant technological resolution for cutting energy usage. This study aims to assess the primary energy consumption and the environmental effects of the fabrication of building and thermal isolation materials by using a new hybrid MCDM model. The proposed new hybrid MCDM model includes Fuzzy FUCOM, CCSD and CRADIS methods. While the subjective weights of the criteria were determined with the fuzzy FUCOM method, the objective weights of the criteria were determined with the CCSD method. Construction materials were listed with the CRADIS method. According to the fuzzy FUCOM method, the most important criterion was determined as the CR3 criterion, while the most important criterion according to the CCSD method was determined as the CR1 criterion. According to the combined weights, the most important criterion was determined as the CR3 criterion. According to the CRADIS method, the material with the best performance was determined as Cement Plaster. The methodology used in this study is a novel approach therefore it has not been used in any study before. In addition, since the CRADIS method is a newly developed MCDM method, the number of articles related to this method is low. Therefore, this research gap will be filled with this study.
... It is important to highlight that a majority of the articles did not conduct a complete LCA. Some studies consider only the cradle-to-gate system [38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46], while others address the cradle-to-grave approach [28,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. In contrast, few studies have assessed more than one life cycle [56][57][58][59], existing urban stocks renewals [60], reuse scenarios [61][62][63], and credits for potential reuse, energy recovery, or recycling of materials in subsequent product systems [64]. ...
This review discusses the unsustainable nature of current production and consumption patterns, particularly in the civil construction sector. To address this, the circular economy model has been proposed as a solution, but the impact reduction of circular strategies (CS) is not well understood. Thus, aligning CS with ecodesign can help achieve sustainable development. We conducted a systematic review of studies on CS and ecodesign strategies (ES) in the built environment, which led us to identify 23 essential strategies, including reuse, recycling, design for disassembly, and design for life extension. This article expands on previous research by identifying 51 CS and ES, some of which are interconnected, and adopting one strategy may benefit another. The authors propose a framework based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act concept to support and manage trade-offs when selecting strategies and to facilitate a collaborative decision-making process. The framework can also help manage the effects of using these strategies on circularity and environmental, social, and economic performance, ultimately improving the construction sector’s environmental performance.
... Due to its complexity, most of the life cycle experts tend to apply simplifications or modifications to the process. The most common modification is to reduce the number of stages involved in the life cycle process by ignoring the stages which have a smaller contribution to the total environmental impacts [3,40,41]. For example, repair and maintenance are less frequently considered in the LCA of building construction [4,5,32]. ...
... There is also some LCA research on the environmental impact of windows [11,49,50]. Notably, few researchers have reviewed the environmental impact of ventilated wooden walls through LCA methodology [40]. ...
... EPS and Eco-indicator'99 are impact assessment methods that focus on damage. IPCC GWP [1,4,5], IMPACT [3,12], TRACI [10], Eco-indicator [3,12], CML [11,12,38,40,41], and CED [41] were utilized in these peer-reviewed articles (Table 1). ...
This article presents a comprehensive overview of the life cycle environmental and energy assessment for all residential and commercial constructions made of timber walls, globally. The study was carried out based on a systematic literature analysis conducted on the Scopus database. A total of 66 research articles were relevant to timber wall design. Among these, the residential construction sector received more attention than the commercial sector, while the low-rise construction (1–2 stories) gained more attention than high-rise construction (>5 stories). Most of these studies were conducted in Canada, Europe, Malaysia, and the USA. In addition, the end-of-life phase received limited attention compared to upstream phases in most of the studies. We compared all environmental and energy-based life cycle impacts that used “m2” as the functional unit; this group represented 21 research articles. Global warming potential was understandably the most studied life cycle environmental impact category followed by acidification, eutrophication, embodied energy, photochemical oxidation, and abiotic depletion. In terms of global warming impact, the external walls of low-rise buildings emit 18 to 702 kg CO2 kg eq./m2, while the internal walls of the same emit 11 kg CO2 kg eq./m2. In turn, the walls of high-rise buildings carry 114.3 to 227.3 kg CO2 kg eq./m2 in terms of global warming impact. The review highlights variations in timber wall designs and the environmental impact of these variations, together with different system boundaries and varying building lifetimes, as covered in various articles. Finally, a few recommendations have been offered at the end of the article for future researchers of this domain.
... Over the past two decades a number of LCA studies regarding the environmental impacts of building products [38]- [43], elements [44]- [49] and buildings as a whole [37], [50], [51] have been conducted. Also many review studies on the subject of LCA in buildings and the construction sector have been published [22], [52]- [54]. ...
Due to the profound impact that building sector has on the environment and consequently the sustainability of our society, the evaluation of environmental impacts through life cycle assessment (LCA) should become part of building design. The number of published environmental product declarations (EPDs) is growing, which indicates that they can become valuable tools for building designers to evaluate the environmental performance of construction works. We identified that in the current EPD scheme an important part is missing – the results interpretation. In order to evaluate the environmental performance of buildings or their components and elements, the designer is “forced” to conduct a comparative assertion on a population of alternatives. The paper explores the results interpretation of LCA data in the context of the EPD scheme for building products and presents a comparative assertion method, which could guide designers through the results interpretation step of LCA. The proposed soft comparative assertion method was tested on a sample of external wall assembly alternatives and the results show that it significantly simplifies the LCA results interpretation and enables straightforward decision making. However, the method is not yet a fully functional tool and should be upgraded in order to make the decision process more robust and less subjective. With this paper we wish to encourage further research on the described topic, which is vital in order to add credibility to the EPD scheme as an instrument for lowering the environmental impact of the building sector.
... Previous studies have noted the importance of introducing a comprehensive perspective to retrofit solutions based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methods due to the related environmental implications of the embodied energy of materials and processes [8,9]. Recent studies have focused on comparisons between different alternatives for building design and the selection of construction systems and building materials [10][11][12][13][14]. In this regard, the selection of building materials has received increased interest in the environmental field and has an important influence on the energy and environmental performance of buildings during both the construction phase [14][15][16] and the building use phase [17,18]. ...
This study proposes a combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) methodology to develop complex LCA inventories for multiple applications. The study focusses on the environmental implications of buildings retrofits, especially in the European context, where the building sector is one of the largest energy consumers. In this context, a new and holistic perspective is needed that expands from the building scale to the urban scale. The combination of LCA and GIS methods includes the development of an urban characterization model based on bottom-up methodologies. The environmental implications associated with increasing the thermal insulation of existing buildings to the current standard are determined based on LCA methods. In this step, common construction systems for building retrofits are used, and insulation materials are compared. Then, absolute and relative extrapolations are performed considering different urban morphologies. The results confirm the importance of the energy retrofitting of residential buildings in large functional urban areas such as the Barcelona metropolitan area, which is examined as a case study. The LCA results indicate that the selection of proper construction systems and thermal insulation materials is important to the environmental performance of building retrofits, and these selections can lead to CO2 emission differences of up 16% in the region. The relative extrapolation results indicate significant environmental differences between urban morphologies. The LCA results show the potential strategic impacts of the inclusion of LCA methods in retrofit policies at the urban scale.
... Rather interesting is the fact that in 51% of all studies the study authors combined at least two methodologies to broaden their investigation. With the help of the functions Configuration Table and Code-Co-Occurrence Model within MAXQDA (see Figure 3), the most common combination pairs could be identified: LCA + numerical modeling [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], LCA + ecodesign concept [75,76,[83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91], LCA + Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) [79,[92][93][94][95], and MCDA + Criteria and Indicators [41,44,50,96,97]. Although statistical analyses such as regression analysis, correlation analysis, and cluster analysis are strong tools for the evaluation of empirical data, they were not frequently used throughout the sample. ...
... Rather interesting is the fact that in 51% of all studies the study authors combined at least two methodologies to broaden their investigation. With the help of the functions Configuration Table and Code-Co-Occurrence Model within MAXQDA (see Figure 3), the most common combination pairs could be identified: LCA + numerical modeling [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], LCA + eco-design concept [75,76,[83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91], LCA + Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) [79,[92][93][94][95], and MCDA + Criteria and Indicators [41,44,50,96,97]. Although statistical analyses such as regression analysis, correlation analysis, and cluster analysis are strong tools for the evaluation of empirical data, they were not frequently used throughout the sample. ...
On the way towards a more biobased economy, the sustainable use of global wood resources remains a challenge as several trade-offs arise, e.g., from an increased energetic use of wood, an increased use of innovative but probably less recyclable wood composites, or from the need to conserve other forest ecosystem services. The aim of this study is to identify existing environmental indicators and methods for an evaluation of the sustainability of wood products in consideration of all life cycle stages, site-dependent aspects and later use in corporate decision-making. We chose a systematic literature review to answer the research questions explicitly and comprehensively. Qualitative content analysis was used to code indicators and scientific methods according to the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework. The sample (N = 118) is characterized by a high number of life cycle assessment (LCA) case studies. In 51% of all studies, the study authors use a combination of different methods. A total of 78 indicators and 20 site-dependent aspects could be identified in the sample. The study findings represent a first step towards a holistic environmental assessment of wood products.
... This forest type has several tree species belonging to the genus Shorea of the Dipterocarpaceae family, which produces sawn timber that has a high demand in the world market (National Timber Policy 2009). The most common Shorea species produced from this forest type are the 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 The global demand for further processing of sawn timber into wood products is inevitable because of its characteristics as an environmentally favourable material compared with materials such as steel, plastic, and concrete (Lippke et al. 2004;González-García et al. 2012;Bergman et al. 2014). Khairul Izzudin et al. (2014 noted that sawn timber is important in Malaysia as a raw material for the construction, furniture, and furniture components sectors. ...
... There are also studies using LCA and as a tool on furniture innovation and life cycle comparison of furniture products. Examples could be found in Taylor and Sara González-García et al. [7,8] where key environmental impact processes and scenario were identified and improvement alternatives were proposed. However, Most studies are focused on the comparison of different kind of materials or product processes, such as comparison between wood base boards and solid wood or wood with other materials. ...
... In addition, LCA is widely used to compare different alternatives in the design of buildings. Most studies have focused on building solutions: different types of exterior walls (Monteiro and Freire, 2012;Islam et al., 2014;Gonz alez-García et al., 2012), the structure of the building ( Xing et al., 2008) and, more recently, green roofs (P erez et al., 2012; Cer on Palma et al., 2013). In these studies, the parameters used to compare different alternatives are the composition of the building system and the materials used in each solution along with considering the location of the building as a comparison between alternatives ( Dean et al., 2006;Richman et al., 2009;Ramesh et al., 2012). ...
http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1STuA3QCo9ETQu
In the European Union, the building sector accounts for more than 40% of the total energy consumption and environmental impacts, representing the area with the greatest potential for intervention. In addition to the existing policies that promote energy efficiency in buildings, the embodied energy and the environmental impacts contained in the building materials should be considered. In the case of the construction of insulation façade systems, the environmental implications are different depending on the type of façade system, the insulation materials used and the location of the building. This article aims to provide all of this information for Spain, including not only the production of the components of the façade system but also the installation phase and the transport to the building site. The results show that the most impactful alternative is the ventilated façade combined with the most impactful insulation materials of stone wool and expanded polystyrene. Meanwhile, the most advisable façade in all of the climate zones is the external thermal insulation system combined with any type of insulation. The environmental impacts of insulation materials are very different. Moreover, it is recommended that further studies complete these results with the economic and social implications of the use and maintenance phases for robust decision-making.
