Toward Energy Savings in Campus Buildings under a Life Cycle Thinking Approach

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and energy assessment of the production and use of windows in residential buildings

There is an observable scarcity of comprehensive research results comparing the environmental damage associated with both the production of windows and their subsequent operation. The environmental impact of the operation of windows depends on their thermal insulation parameters, and thus the amount of heat that must be generated to heat the building. The type of heating system and, above all, the type of fuel used to generate heat are also not without significance. Unfortunately, in Poland, a significant proportion of single-family houses operate on the fossil fuel heating system, including on coal and fuel oil. It is therefore important to present an environmental balance sheet of both the production and operation of windows for different variants of building heating. The purpose of the study was to determine: to what extent the manufacturing of windows of different construction and different insulation parameters affects the environment, to what extent does the negative environmental impact of the process of manufacturing with greater insulation compensate by the lower environmental impact related to savings on fuel (gas, coal, fuel oil) used to generate heat during the operation of windows. Three types of windows were selected for a detailed analysis: a triple-glazed aluminum construction, a double-glazed PVC construction and a triple-glazed PVC. The research results show that in the case of all impact categories, the greater environmental losses related to the improvement of the thermal insulation parameters of the windows at the production stage are fully compensated at the stage of their useful life, regardless of the type of fuel used to heat the buildings. Double-glazed PVC windows should be phased out of production due to significant environmental footprint associated with their operation.

Integrating Environmental and Economic Perspectives in Building Design

With increasing environmental damage and decreasing resource availability, sustainability assessment in the building sector is gaining momentum. A literature review shows that the related methods for environmental and economic performance, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC), show great potential for answering a multitude of questions related to building performance. Prevalent topics are the implications of LCA and LCC for retrofit solutions and the trade-offs between environmental and economic considerations in building design. A detailed review of 30 case studies shows the range of differing result integration methods and sheds light on the use of monetary valuation of environmental indicators for an integrated assessment. While a quasi-dynamic approach, accounting for the changing value of money over time, is common in LCC, such an approach is largely absent from LCA. The analysis of common metrics shows that the studies employ strongly differing system boundaries and input parameters. Moreover, a clear description of the methodological framework is missing in most studies. Therefore, this research develops an “Eco2” framework, integrating LCA and LCC for application in building design. Potential further developments for Eco2 building assessment are related to extending the system boundaries by including mechanical systems and end-of-life phases, data collection and structuring, and streamlining the approach for continuous application to all stages of building design processes. Additionally, the influence on design decisions of employing temporal parameters in both LCA and LCC and of choosing particular result integration methods should be investigated further.

The Evaluation of Historic Building Energy Retrofit Projects through the Life Cycle Assessment

The built environment sector is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion that contributes to the climate change crisis. The European Commission, in the “Green New Deal”, highlights that the sustainable regeneration/requalification of existing buildings plays a fundamental role to maximize the objective of decarbonization and resource conservation for 2050. The aim of this study was to understand how historic buildings’ energy retrofit projects can contribute to achieve this goal. In this study, we made a life cycle assessment to evaluate an energy retrofit project of Villa Vannucchi, an historic building located in San Giorgio a Cremano (Naples). The results of this application showed that the use of hemp material, for walls’ thermal insulation, significantly reduces the percentage of environmental impacts in the entire material life cycle (compared with traditional materials). This was because the plant removes a significant percentage of CO2 already from the atmosphere when it is growing. In conclusion, the assessment of different design scenarios that promote the use of innovative technologies and materials can be of high utility to designers to compare and choose efficient solutions for the sustainable/circular renovation of historic buildings.

Analyses of the Life Cycles and Social Costs of CO2 Emissions of Single-Family Residential Buildings: A Case Study in Poland

Comprehensive environmental impact assessments of buildings and construction as a whole consider the preparation of construction and finishing materials, their transportation, the process of erecting buildings, long-term operations—including the consumption of electricity, water, and fuels—and the management of the waste generated during the demolition of facilities. In terms of the above-mentioned elements, the most negative environmental impact on a building’s life cycle is in its exploitation stage. In order to reduce this impact, modern sustainable construction uses renewable energy sources. In the area of the Polish building market, analyses of CO2 emissions, the application of LCAs for building materials, and assessments of the social impacts of modern buildings are still very limited. The aim of this study is to evaluate the environmental life cycles and social costs of the CO2 emissions of single-family residential buildings, in which four different systems providing energy (heat and electricity) from renewable and nonrenewable sources are used. In this research, it was found that the annual CO2 emissions per square meter of building surface area in the analyzed objects were in the range of 30 to 176 kg CO2. The greatest contributor to the environmental effects was energy consumption (58% to 90%). The CO2 analysis conducted showed that facilities that use a heat pump are characterized by an environmental effect that is six times lower than that of facilities that are powered by coal combustion and electricity from the network. Similarly, the social costs associated with CO2 emissions were significantly lower in the case of the use of renewable energy sources.