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Map of France with the different climate zones (H1a, H1b, H1c, H2a, H2b, H2c, H2d, and H3) and the location of the single family houses
Source publication
Purpose
In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied to a sample of 40 low-energy individual houses for the French context in order to identify guidance values for different environmental priorities (energy and water consumption, greenhouse gases emissions, waste generation etc.).
Methods
Calculation rules for the LCA derived from EeBGuid...
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Citations
... In the literature, the quality and representativeness of the sample used to establish benchmarks also vary widely. In France, a sample of 40 low-energy individual houses was selected according to the market shares for the load-bearing construction (reinforced concrete, concrete block, wooden houses, brick and steel frame) and the climatic region (Lasvaux et al. 2017). In Norway, all cases were exemplary projects built to very high energy standards, such as zero-emission building (Wiik et al. 2020). ...
... Different assessment methodologies, databases and scopes were challenging the data processing in an international study (Röck et al. 2022). The results are very sensitive to the system boundaries (Lasvaux et al. 2017), e.g. the calculation period, the life cycle stages considered (e.g. treatment of stages C and D) or the completeness of the physical model of the building. ...
... According to another source, 1-5 kWh/gross floor area of electricity may be considered for residential houses and 5-20 kWh/gross floor area for multi-storey residential buildings (Gervasio et al. 2018). Lasvaux et al. (2017) assume 1.3 l/m 2 of diesel consumption on the construction site, which is about 50 MJ/m 2 . In this study, 30 MJ/m 2 of diesel and 5 kWh/m 2 of electricity were assumed for construction, 1 kWh/m 2 electricity for replacement and 30 MJ/m 2 of diesel for demolition. ...
Purpose
The production and construction of buildings cause significant environmental impacts besides those arising from their operation. Recently, some European countries have started introducing life cycle assessment as a mandatory calculation method for new buildings, and it is foreseen that by 2030 this will be done in every member state, at first without any legal minimum values.
Methods
Extensive databases on the embodied impacts of buildings, which would be needed to support setting the baseline impacts, are still missing. This paper proposes an approach for determining bottom-up reference values. A large building sample is generated describing “technically feasible” new buildings. Instead of analysing a few typical buildings, the main parameters describing a building are determined and the ranges are defined that these parameters typically take. With the variation of these parameters, a large building sample is generated, and the surfaces and built-in material quantities are determined for typical construction solutions to assess environmental performance.
Results and discussion
The method is demonstrated by calculating the reference embodied benchmark values for new residential buildings in Hungary. The results show a baseline embodied Global Warming Potential of 9.5–15.5 kg CO2-eq/m²/yr for single-family houses and 9.1–14.3 kg CO2-eq/m²/yr for multi-family houses.
Conclusions
This method is suitable for estimating the environmental impact of typical new buildings in countries where a large pool of real building data is not yet available.
... Most studies in the literature also apply the bottom-up approach, albeit with different types of building datasets. Several studies apply a data-driven approach and derive benchmarks from real case studies or LCA results, often collected from other studies or from databases of existing rating tools [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Consequently, these datasets generally include the results of LCAs with varying scopes and methods and different background data [29][30][31][32][33][34]. ...
To reduce the environmental effects caused by buildings, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is increasingly applied. Recently, national building regulations have implemented LCA requirements to support building life cycle impact reduction. A key element in these regulations are environmental benchmarks which allow designers to compare their buildings with reference values. This study develops bottom-up life cycle environmental benchmarks that represent conventional construction in Flanders, Belgium. The study investigates the potential of using a database of building energy performance calculations. Specifically, this study considers 39 residential buildings identified as representative of the Flemish Energy Performance of Buildings (EPB) database of 2015-2016, applying modifications to establish scenarios that are still relevant in 2025. The buildings are assessed with the Belgian LCA tool TOTEM to calculate an aggregated score based on the European Product Environmental footprint (PEF) weighting approach and including 12 main impact categories. In addition to the aggregated score, the Climate Change (CC) indicator is analysed individually.
In view of the benchmarks, variations were applied to the 39 buildings in terms of heating system and materialisation. The variation in heating system included changing gas boilers to electric heat pumps to comply with upcoming (2025) Flemish building regulations. The variations in materials included three sets of conventional Flemish building element compositions that were applied to generate a wider spread of impact results as a basis for benchmarks. Benchmark values were derived through a statistical analysis of the 117 variants: a best-practice value (10th percentile), reference value (median) and limit value (90th percentile). For the environmental score, the benchmark values are 86, 107 and 141 millipoints per square meter of gross heated floor area (mPt/m²GHFA), respectively; for CC, the benchmark values are 844, 1015 and 1284 kg CO2-eq/m²GHFA. Finally, the study discusses the representativeness, implications and limitations of the final benchmarks and benchmark approach.
... Initially, a BIM model was developed for a selected base building scenario using Autodesk Revit, and upgraded building designs were defined to fulfill the requirements of sample energy code, which is BCESC. Then, whole-building life cycle environmental and cost assessments were conducted for the proposed designs based on the EN15978 and ISO15686-5 standards, respectively [28,29]. Last, comparisons between different scenarios were used to discuss the overall performance of STEP Code complying building designs from a life cycle thinking perspective, and possible recommendations for building energy standard setting are put forward. ...
Life cycle thinking and holistic sustainability assessment are missing in current building energy codes globally,
with primarily focus on operational energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The overall objective and
originality of this study is to evaluate the building-level life-cycle environmental and economic impact of
building energy code compliance, exploring the trade-offs between energy savings, various environmental impacts
and cost effectiveness, taking the British Columbia Energy STEP Code (BCESC) as a case study. An integrated
approach of using building information modeling (BIM) with whole building life cycle assessment (LCA)
and life cycle costing (LCC) is proposed, and comparisons of life cycle environmental and economic impacts are
studied with respect to each energy upgrade level. The findings revealed that while the total energy demand
intensity and GHG emissions decreased (by about 50% compared to base scenario) with the code intervention
steps, the other environmental impacts may increase due to the embodied materials, production, and upkeep of
the upgrades, for example, the ozone depletion potential increased by nearly 800% compared to the baseline.
Additionally, the energy-saving measures reduce building operating costs by about C$4,000, which is significantly
less than the increased costs in other stages. However, this incremental cost does not always mitigate the
effects of specific environmental impact categories. The findings will be of interest to building industry policymakers
to develop more holistically sustainable building energy policies, allocating limited funds in a more
cost-effective manner to reduce environmental impacts, instead of focusing solely on direct and temporary
benefits.
... In addition, due to their particularly long lifespan, the choices made for buildings constructed today largely determine the level of their long-term environmental impacts (Frischknecht et al. 2019). This is why the scientific literature has put remarkable efforts in identifying emission reduction strategies for buildings, whether targeting the operational emissions, i.e., emissions coming from the functioning of the building (Hoxha and Jusselme 2017;Lasvaux et al. 2017;Drouilles et al. 2019), or the embodied emissions, i.e., emissions related to the materials, transport, construction, and end-of-life (Alig et al. 2020;Zhong et al. 2021;Alaux et al. 2023). Trade-offs between embodied and operational emissions in order to improve the life cycle performance of buildings have also been highlighted in multiple studies (Mirabella et al. 2018;Lützkendorf and Balouktsi 2016). ...
Purpose
The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by the construction industry account for an enormous share of total global CO2 emissions. The numerous construction activities therefore continue to reduce the remaining carbon budget. One lever for the reduction of these GHG emissions lies in the procurement process of buildings. For this reason, a process model was developed that takes embodied and operational emissions into account in the tendering and awarding phase of buildings.
Methods
To validate the developed theoretical framework, environmental life cycle costing (eLCC) was conducted on a single-family house case study, taking into account external cost caused by GHG emissions. Various shadow prices were defined for the calculation of external cost to identify changes in award decisions. We further investigated a results-based climate finance (RBCF) instrument, i.e., the GHG emission bonus/malus, to demonstrate an approach for calculating Paris-compatible cost (PCC) scenarios.
Results
We show that an award decision based on life cycle costing (LCC) leads to a 12% reduction in GHG emissions. A further reduction in GHG emissions can be achieved by awarding contracts based on eLCC. However, the required shadow prices within the eLCC awards to influence the award decision are quite high. With the development of the LCA-based bonus/malus system, PCC scenarios can be determined at sufficient shadow prices, and further GHG emission reductions can be achieved.
Conclusions
Since the implementation of LCA and LCC in the tendering and awarding process is currently not mandatory, in this context, the next step towards Paris-compatible buildings must first be taken by the awarding authorities as well as the policy-makers. However, the application of the LCA-based bonus/malus system and thus the awarding of contracts according to PCC scenarios show the enormous GHG emissions reduction potential and thus represent an innovative and sustainable framework for an adapted procurement process.
... To curb buildings' contribution to increased global temperatures, many reduction strategies have been proposed in recent decades. Focus has been mostly placed on the use (or operational) stage of the building Lasvaux et al., 2017;Drouilles et al., 2019). Due to their long service life, it is common to expect that the greatest number of environmental impacts generated by (and within) a building happens during this period. ...
In order to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of buildings, the literature has investigated many strategies to tackle operational emissions, which are traditionally the largest contributor to overall emissions. As a result, embodied emissions are gaining increased attention, not only due to the decrease in the relative share of operational emissions but also due to increased material needs, e.g. the use of additional thermal insulation in buildings. Some of these strategies, such as the decarbonisation of the energy grid, could also help decrease the embodied emissions of building materials. The objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of increased renewable electricity use in building material production. It also examines future trends in the manufacturing processes – such as an intensified use of bioenergy, improvements in energy efficiency and the introduction of carbon capture and storage – on the GHG emissions of buildings. These strategies are analysed in a combined “future materials” scenario on a macro scale within the Tyrol province in Austria. With a focus on new residential constructions, six design variations of two building case studies are assessed using life cycle assessment. They are then projected to 2050 at the provincial level. The results of the future materials scenario point towards a promising embodied GHG reduction, up to 19% in this analysis. Larger mitigation effects would appear in the 2040s and 2050s, meaning future manufacturing technologies can be seen as a long-term investment. Their reduction potential surpasses the potential impact of an increase in wooden constructions. The latter achieved up to 7% reduction in GHG emissions, which would be mostly visible in the early decades rather than in later ones. These reduction percentages remain lower than those which could be attained at the operational energy level, with reductions of up to 72%. The obtained results are discussed in the light of other published regional and global studies to identify the possible sources of variations. Critical reflections on CCS and renewables additionally highlight the intrinsic challenges of such key technologies.
... The majority of studies were found to have an external typology, obtaining the benchmarks from case-study evaluation (i.e., postconstruction). For example, as seen for various building studies, benchmarks were obtained from case studies considering from 5 to over 1000 homes [40,54,64,65]. Some rating systems also use external benchmarks, such as DGNB [12] and BREEAM [5,53]. ...
As it stands, the construction sector accounts for a significant proportion of global emissions. The majority of these emissions can be associated with material production. As a result, the importance of quantifying these environmental impacts is continually increasing. However, there is a current lack of guidance and methodologies regarding how to benchmark the impacts of construction products, and thus achieve more transparent environmental reporting and decision-making. Therefore, the aim of this study was to review engineering life-cycle assessment (LCA) literature and applicable standards to identify the key methodological variables required and the key steps for a sector-wide methodology. This was carried out via a bibliographic search for indexed, peer-reviewed journal publications and conference proceedings, project reports, and standards for constructed assets. From the search conducted, 23 documents and 4 standards were selected for review as relevant for this study. As a result, five key constituent methodological variables (study scope; model typology; benchmark approach; database selection; benchmark type) and three key steps (data collection; LCA; benchmark generation, with the option for Data Envelopment Analysis) were identified. Furthermore, considering the novel ISO 21678:2020, specific benchmark pathways were defined for the four types of benchmark values which can be obtained: limit, reference, short- and long-term. The definition of this set of steps, key methodological variables and the authors' recommendations for the construction sector constitute the first LCA benchmarking methodology on this field.
... Attempts have been made to achieve carbon emission benchmarks and reduction targets at the national level. (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). ...
FutureBuilt is a voluntary program for ambitious low-carbon construction projects. To incentivize measures that lead to the lowest climate change impact from all aspects of buildings and according to national Paris agreement pledges, FutureBuilt Zero introduces an ambition level and a novel calculation methodology for net climate change impacts over the life of a building. The ambition level is tightened over time to help Norway achieve its climate goals. A comprehensive simplified calculation method is introduced, which considers how the timing of emissions during the building life affects the contribution to global warming. Both direct and indirect emissions throughout the lifetime are included; energy use in operation and at the construction site, material production and transport of materials to the construction site, and waste management (incineration). In addition, the climate-positive effects of biogenic carbon uptake, carbonation of cement, potential for future reusability, and exported energy are included. This paper presents the criteria, describes the method and the scientific basis as well as the principles and logic behind the choices made.
... As a result of an examination of 133 building cases, Norway set an initial benchmark value for all building types in the as-built phase in the range 4-8.2 kgCO2e/m 2 /y for a 60-year lifespan [52]. Lasvaux et al. assessed 40 single-family houses and proposed an average value of GHG for the French building industry of 8.4 kg CO2e/m 2 /y [53]. Their findings also recognized that wood-based houses had the lowest carbon footprint and PE use, while concrete-based houses displayed the highest level of GHG emissions, with more than 20 kg CO2e/m 2 /y. ...
... The findings from the thesis on this basis are in line with other findings for singlefamily houses. In the study by Lasvaux et al., depending on which part of the building is evaluated, the overall impacts are reduced from -2 to -47% for GWP and PE use indicators [53] when comparing a 50 with a 100-year life period. ...
The building industry is responsible for 35% of final energy use and 38% of
CO2 emissions at a global level. The European Union aims to reduce CO2 emissions in the building industry by up to 90% by the year 2050. Therefore, it is
important to consider the environmental impacts buildings have. The purpose
of this thesis was to investigate the environmental impacts and costs of a single-family house in Sweden. In the study, the life cycle assessment (LCA) and
the life cycle cost (LCC) methods have been used by following the “cradle to
grave” life cycle perspective.
This study shows a significant reduction of global warming potential
(GWP), primary energy (PE) use and costs when the lifespan of the house is
shifted from 50 to 100 years. The findings illustrate a total decrease in LCA
outcome, of GWP to 27% and PE to 18%. Considering the total LCC outcome,
when the discount rate increases from 3% to 5% and then 7%, the total costs
decrease significantly (60%, 85% to 95%). The embodied carbon, PE use and
costs from the production stage/construction stage are significantly reduced,
while the maintenance/replacement stage displays the opposite trend. Operational energy use, water consumption and end-of-life, however, remain largely
unchanged. Furthermore, the findings emphasize the importance of using
wood-based building materials due to its lower carbon-intensive manufacturing process compared to non-wood choices.
The results of the LCA and LCC were systematically studied and are presented visually. Low carbon and cost-effective materials and installations have
to be identified in the early stage of a building design so that the appropriate
investment choices can be made that will reduce a building’s total environmental and economic impact in the long run. Findings from this thesis provide a
greater understanding of the environmental and economic impacts that are relevant for decision-makers when building single-family houses
... Second, the present study provides a fully detailed assessment of the environmental impacts of the building by considering, in system boundary, more than 87 materials and their derivatives of building fabrics, and technical and electrical equipment. Most previous studies have limited the system boundary to only building fabric, considering around 20 materials (Georges et al. 2015;Lasvaux et al. 2017;Beccali et al. 2013;Mosteiro-Romero et al. 2014;Wang et al. 2018;Biswas 2014;Azzouz et al. 2017;Attia 2016;Eberhardt et al. 2019;Röck et al. 2020b). Lastly, this study assessed the full environmental impacts of technical and electrical equipment. ...
... These differences were from the embodied impacts and most specifically from the electrical and technical equipment excluded from the study's system boundary. The comparisons of the environmental impacts of technical and electrical equipment evaluated in this study with those of other studies (KBOB 2016;Georges et al. 2015;Passer et al. 2012;Hoxha and Jusselme 2017;Lasvaux et al. 2017;Beccali et al. 2013;Lobaccaro et al. 2018;Mosteiro-Romero et al. 2014;Hoxha 2015) show differences of a range of 5-95%. Several reasons such as building typology, life cycle inventory database, system boundary, and hypotheses considered in calculations are associated to result discrepancies between different studies Frischknecht et al. 2020). ...
... Regarding the life cycle inventory database, a more detailed analysis shows that most of the studies (Georges et al. 2015;Passer et al. 2012;Beccali et al. 2013;Lobaccaro et al. 2018;Mosteiro-Romero et al. 2014) used the ecoinvent database for the calculation of the environmental impacts of electrical and technical equipment. One study (Hoxha and Jusselme 2017) used the KBOB database that largely relies on the ecoinvent database (Frischknecht et al. 2013) and the last group (Hoxha 2015;Lasvaux et al. 2017) used the French database (INIES 2009). For the studies using ecoinvent, we can confirm that the gaps are not influences from the database, whereas the differences with the studies using the French database are mainly related to the limitation of system boundary for calculating the environmental impacts of all technical and electrical equipment. ...
Purpose
A detailed assessment of the environmental impacts of the building requires a substantial amount of data that is time- and effort-consuming. However, limitation of the system boundary to certain materials and components can provide misleading impact calculation. In order to calculate the error gap between detailed and simplified assessments, the purpose of this article is to present a detailed calculation of the environmental impacts of the building by including in the system boundary, the technical, and electrical equipment.
Method
To that end, the environmental impacts of a laboratory and research building situated in Graz-Austria are assessed following the EN-15978 norm. Within the system boundaries of the study, the material and components of building fabric, technical, and electronic equipment for the building lifecycle stages of production, construction, replacement, operational energy and water, and end-of-life are considered. The input data regarding the quantity of materials is collected from the design and tendering documents, invoices, and from discussion with the head of the building’s construction site. Primary energy and global warming potential indicators are calculated on the basis of a functional unit of 1 m ² of energy reference area (ERA) per year, considering a reference building service life of 50 years.
Results and discussion
The primary energy indicator of the building is equal to 1698 MJ/m ² ERA /year. The embodied impacts are found to be responsible for 28% of which 6.4% is due to technical and electronic equipment. Furthermore, the embodied impacts for the global warming potential, equal to 28.3 kg CO 2 e/m ² ERA /year, are responsible for 73%. Together, technical and electrical equipment are the largest responsible aspects, accounting for 38% of the total impacts. Simplified and detailed result comparisons show a gap of 29% and 7.7% for global warming and primary energy indicators. These differences were from the embodied impacts and largely from the exclusion of electrical equipment from the study’s system boundary.
Conclusions
Technical and electrical equipment present a significant contribution to the overall environmental impacts of the building. Worthy of inclusion in the system boundary of the study, the environmental impacts of technical and electrical equipment must be calculated in detail or considered with a reliable ratio in the early design phase of the project. Further research is necessary to address the detailed impact calculation of the equipment and notably the minimization of their impacts.
... The degree of energy consumed in buildings will be doubled in the year 2030 [45]. Also, buildings are responsible for 43% of the GHG emissions and 75% of the electrical energy usage in Pakistan [46,47]. More than 38% share of energy is taken by the buildings for HVAC purposes. ...
In the current research,a comparative study of hybrid microgrid Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) is performed for temperate and tropical climates. A theoretical building of a shopping mall is considered for both countries. Climate data is recorded for one year and used for designing hybrid NZEB. The proposed hybrid microgrid NZEB consisted on photovoltaic (PV) modules and converters. However, the thermal load is the property of grid-connected hybrid system. Cost-effectiveness of the project is checked using economic parameters of the net present cost (NPC), payback period, and operational costs. Results show that investigation is economical and has a payback period of 1.84years in Thailand and 2.66years in Pakistan. Also, reduction in the per-unit cost of electricity is 31% and 27% in Thailand and Pakistan, respectively.Moreover, the designed hybrid system is 9.5% and 7.1% more economical than the pre working grid system with the unit cost reduction 0.12USD/kWh and0.21 USD/kWh in Pakistan and Thailand respectively. Additionally, maximum electricity generation by PV panels is 234739kWh. So, results will help to develop an approach toward IEA task 47 in Pakistan by minimizing energy cost per unit of electricity. The research will also contribute to the research gap in energy sector by providing an economically advantageous study of simulation-based installation of NZEBs in the commercial sector in both countries.
