A Cradle to Handover Life Cycle Assessment of External Walls: Choice of Materials and Prognosis of Elements

Abstract

This research focuses on a comparison of 20 external wall systems that are conventionally used in Spanish residential buildings, from a perspective based on the product and construction process stages of the life cycle assessment. The primary objective is to provide data that allow knowing the environmental behavior of walls built with materials and practices conventionally. This type of analysis will enable promoting the creation of regulations that encourage the use of combinations of materials that generate the most environmentally suitable result, and in turn, contribute to the strengthening of the embodied stages study of buildings and their elements. The results indicate that the greatest impact arises in the product stage (90.9%), followed by the transport stage (8.9%) and the construction process stage (<1%). Strategies (such as the use of large-format pieces and the controlled increase in thickness of the thermal insulation) can contribute to reducing the environmental impact; on the contrary, practices such as the use of small-format pieces and laminated plasterboard can increase the environmental burden. The prediction of the environmental behavior (simulation equation) allows these possible impacts to be studied in a fast and simplified way.

An Integrated Environment–Cost–Time Optimisation Method for Construction Contractors Considering Global Warming

“…PD and ID are the equipment operational time and idle This study attempts to search the environmentally friendly plan trade-off with project time and cost. The environmental assessment boundary follows the standard rules EN 15804:2012 + A1:2013 [46] and from a previous study [47]. It includes construction auxiliary materials from upstream extraction, processing, and production (A1-A3); major and auxiliary material off-site transportation (A4); and on-site equipment construction (A5).…”

Comparison of the Applied Measures on the Simulated Scenarios for the Sustainable Building Construction through Carbon Footprint Emissions—Case Study of Building Construction in Serbia

“…The impact of Phases A1-A5 on the environment in the life cycle of a building wasstudied by the authors who concluded that this phase has aproportion of 8-20% [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. The impact of thermal covers of a building on the environment in Phases A1-A5 was investigated by Gámez-García et al [37].…”

“…Their studies [40] show that the current estimations of embodied energy are unclear and differ considerably, thus they conclude that guidelines are necessary, which would develop into globally accepted protocol for the calculation of embodied energy. The extensive study carried out by Gámez-García et al [37] on the impact of the applied materials in external walls of residential buildings in Spain shows the advantages and disadvantages of certain assemblies and negative impacts of gypsum boards. They claimed that 90% of the impact is generated during the process of production, whereas the process of construction solely contributes 1% of the impact [37].…”

“…The extensive study carried out by Gámez-García et al [37] on the impact of the applied materials in external walls of residential buildings in Spain shows the advantages and disadvantages of certain assemblies and negative impacts of gypsum boards. They claimed that 90% of the impact is generated during the process of production, whereas the process of construction solely contributes 1% of the impact [37].…”

“…This provides a realistic estimation about when the positive effects can be expected, because of the implementation of the measures for the energy efficiency of buildings in Serbia. The suggested model of calculation can be applied in other EU countries by analyzing the embodied carbon on typical projects of those countries, as was investigated by Gámez-García et al [37] for the external walls used in Spain.…”