In a context of intense environmental pressure where the construction sector has the greatest impact on several indicators, the reuse of load-bearing elements is the most promising by avoiding the production of waste, preserving natural resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing embodied energy. This study proposes a methodology based on a chain of tools to enable structural engineers to anticipate future reuse. This methodology describes the design of reversible assemblies, the addition of complementary information in the building information modeling (BIM), reinforced traceability, and the development of a material bank. At the same time, controlling the environmental impacts of reuse is planned by carrying out a life cycle assessment (LCA) at all stages of the project. Two scenarios for reuse design are applied with the toolchain proposed. A. "design from a stock" scenario, which leads to 100% of elements being reused, using only elements from stock. B. "design with a stock" scenario, which seeks to integrate as many reused elements available in the stock as possible. The case study of a high-rise building deconstructed to rebuild a medium-rise building demonstrated that the developed toolchain allowed the inclusion of all reuse elements in a new structural calculation model. Sustainability 2020, 12, 3147 2 of 24 the largest exploiters of natural resources [8], accounting for between 40% of the total raw materials consumption [9] and 50% [10].This growing development has repercussions on the emission of GHGs, among other indicators. In France, the construction and building industry is the leading emitter of GHGs [11], i.e., 33% of total GHGs. Several studies confirm this number worldwide [6,12,13]. Kumar Dixit et al. [8] define the embodied energy (EE) and embodied carbon (EC). EE during the construction phase is the amount of energy used for the extraction of raw materials, the production and transport of building components as well as the building construction and end-of-life (EOL). Moreover, EC refers to the associated GHG emissions [3]; the operating energy during the operation phase as energy consumption and associated operational carbon emissions during the use phase of buildings (heating, cooling, etc.). The average value of EE is 50% of the total primary energy demand [14]. The share of operational energy seems to decrease recently (even disappearing in passive or zero energy buildings) with technical progress and, therefore, the share of EE increases [15].Another impact of the construction sector is due to waste generation [5,16]. Most of the literature focuses on waste management, which shows a great interest in reducing the construction and demolition waste (CDW) generated by the construction sector as it represents around 40% of the waste produced [17]. Cai et al. [18] and Lismont et al. [19] explained that in Europe, about 25-30% of the waste result from the building sector amounting to 870 million tons annually and Brütting et al. [3] estimated this share at more than a third ...
Purpose: the objective of the study is to progress towards a comprehensive component-based Life Cycle Assessment model with clear and reusable Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) for High Speed Rail (HSR) infrastructure components, to assess the main environmental impacts of HSR infrastructure over its lifespan, to finally determine environmental hotpots and good practices. Method: a process-based LCA compliant with ISO 14040 and 14044 is performed. Construction stage LCIs rely on data collection conducted with the concessionaire of the HSR line combined with EcoInvent 3.1 inventories. Use and End-of-Life stages LCIs rest on expert feedback scenarios and field data. A set of 13 midpoint indicators is proposed to capture the diversity of the environmental damage: climate change, consumptions of primary energy and non-renewable resources, human toxicity and ecotoxicities, eutrophication, acidification, radioactive and bulk wastes, stratospheric ozone depletion and summer smog. Results: The study shows major contributions to environmental impact from rails (10-71%), roadbed (3-48%), and civil engineering structures (4-28%). More limited impact is noted from ballast (1-22%), building machines (0-17%), sleepers (4-11%), and power supply system (2-12%). The two last components, chairs and fasteners, have negligible impact (max. 1% and 3% of total contributions, respectively). Direct transportation can contribute up to 18% of total impact. The production and maintenance stages contribute roughly equally to environmental
Purpose Environmental data for steel products are generally proposed at a continental or a global scale. The question we are tackling here is: does the fact that steel as a global market necessarily reduces the need for national data? Methods In this study, the environmental impact of reinforcing steel sold in France is evaluated. To do so, a specific environmental inventory is adapted from Ecoinvent database. CML method is used for impact calculation and both methods "recycled content" as well as "end of life recycling approach" are tested. Results and discussion This study shows that there is a specificity of reinforcing steel products sold in France compared to European value. It is due to the fact that reinforcing steel is mainly made with recycled steel as the market growth for construction product in France is limited allowing a very high recycled content. This result is not sensitive neither to the allocation method used for recycling (cut-off approach or system expansion) nor to transport distance and electricity country mix used. Conclusions The result of this study can be used with confidence in every construction site work located on the French territory. Furthermore, the present study advocates for an adaptation of global database to local context defined by a specific industrial sector and a geographic region even for product such as steel that may be considered as a first approximation as a global product.
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