Energy and water consumption and carbon footprint of school buildings in hot climate conditions. Results from life cycle assessment

Gamarra, Ana Rosa; Istrate, Ioan-Robert; Herrera, Israel; Lago, Carmen; Lizana, Jesús; Lechón, Yolanda

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.153

Cited by 56 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…For example, in the United Kingdom, Laurentis et al [51] quantified the carbon footprint (CF) and water footprint (WF) of primary school meals served. In Spain, Gamarra et al [52] analysed the energy, material, and water requirement activities of two schools located in a hot climate area. Additionally, these authors evaluates the aggregated energy and water consumption, water scarcity exacerbation problems, and the associated carbon footprint through the Life Cycle Assessment, which allows the quantification of the impacts along the whole value chain of the school activities per student.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Consumption and Management in Schools in the City of Alicante (Southern Spain) (2000–2017): Free Water Helps Promote Saving Water?

Seguido

Hernández

Cantos

et al. 2020

Water

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Studies on water in cities usually focus on household consumption. However, little attention has been given to non-household consumption and schools from a geographic perspective. The objectives of this research are to examine water consumption trends in schools in the city of Alicante (Southern Spain) between 2000–2017, revise how water use is managed in these centers, and, lastly, examine initiatives aimed at environmental education and saving water in these schools. The results obtained from a survey of school directors indicate a low level of participation because only 14 of the 88 educational centres in the city chose to collaborate in this research. Second, and with regard to water trend consumption, in 2017, water consumption increased by 1.76% in comparison with the average for the period of 2000 to 2004, in contrast with a 38.9% fall in non-household general consumption in the city. Lastly, measures to encourage water saving and environmental education in schools are limited. This tendency is explained by the increase in the number of users over the last five years. Second, the water bill is not paid directly by schools’ directors and, thus, ‘free’ water is a factor that does not incentivise savings. A third is the little investment made in the installation of water-saving devices, water-saving plans, or action taken to promote the use of non-conventional water resources to the watering garden. Lastly, low promotion of environmental education or incentives for savings in schools.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Consumption and Management in Schools in the City of Alicante (Southern Spain) (2000–2017): Free Water Helps Promote Saving Water?

Seguido

Hernández

Cantos

et al. 2020

Water

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“…The analyses show that the energy needs are indirectly due to the provision of energy to the agricultural sector and directly due to agricultural activities or food. The optimization of the provision of water and energy in two school buildings in order to promote sustainable municipalities is proposed by Gamarra et al [22]. School buildings are selected due to the high energy consumption, mainly in hot weather conditions, lacking of energy efficiency measures and water scarcity complications.…”

Section: Topic Methodology Main Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward an Efficient and Sustainable Use of Energy in Industries and Cities

et al. 2019

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Several countries have recently realized that the present development paradigm is not sustainable from an environmental and energy point of view. The growing awareness of the population regarding environmental issues is pushing governments worldwide more and more to promote policies aiming at limiting harmful effects of human development. In particular, the rapid increase of the global temperature, especially in the polar regions, and the management of human wastes, mainly plastic in seas, are some of the main points to be addressed by these novel policies. Several actions must be implemented in order to limit such issues. Unfortunately, the recent COP 24 Conference was not successful, but hopefully an agreement will be established in 2020 at the COP 26 Conference. The effort performed by policymakers must be mandatorily supported by the scientific community. In this framework, this paper aims at showing that countries worldwide are trying to negotiate an agreement to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, in this paper all the researchers reported can provide quantitative measures of the actions to be implemented in order to address a sustainable and efficient use of energy. Here, innovations in terms of novel efficient and environmentally friendly technologies mainly based on renewable energy sources have been also investigated. The study also highlights different sectors that have been involved for this aim, such as energy conversion systems, urban areas, mobility, sustainability, water management, social aspects, etc. In this framework, specific conferences are periodically organized in order to provide a forum for discussion regarding these topics. In this area the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) conference is the most ordinary conference. The 13th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference was held in Palermo, Italy in 2018. The current Special Issue of Energies, precisely dedicated to the 13th SDEWES Conference, is based on three main topics: energy policy and energy efficiency in urban areas, energy efficiency in industry and biomass and other miscellaneous energy systems.

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“…However, for school buildings, most of the studies on their environmental impact in terms of CO 2 emissions refer to existing buildings needing an energy upgrade. These studies mainly compared possible energy and environmental efficiency strategies to be adopted in schools to improve their energy performance and decrease their environmental impact [29][30][31].…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Environmental and Economic Sustainability for the Building Envelope of Low-Carbon Schools

2021

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To achieve a carbon-free economy by 2050, the construction of low-carbon schools in Italy must select the proper structural and technological solutions for the building envelope while ensuring a low economic cost. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare several technological solutions for the building envelope and the related structural solutions in terms of thermo-dynamic properties, energy performance, environmental sustainability parameters, and economic evaluations, to obtain one or more alternatives. After a general study, the binomial load-bearing structure–external wall was investigated given its strong influence on both the environment and the total cost. The solutions were used in a new typological model for the kindergarten. All the solutions are comparable from an energy and environmental point of view, obtaining a primary energy demand of <25 kWh/(m2year) and an environmental impact of <20 kWh/(m2year). However, considering the economic factor and analyzing the binomial load-bearing structure–external wall, the advisable solutions are those that use wooden structures with insulation layer in wood fiber as they have a significantly lower environmental impact, along with the same good energy performance and have an acceptable cost compared to other analyzed solutions.

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Energy and water consumption and carbon footprint of school buildings in hot climate conditions. Results from life cycle assessment

Cited by 56 publications

References 14 publications

Water Consumption and Management in Schools in the City of Alicante (Southern Spain) (2000–2017): Free Water Helps Promote Saving Water?

Water Consumption and Management in Schools in the City of Alicante (Southern Spain) (2000–2017): Free Water Helps Promote Saving Water?

Toward an Efficient and Sustainable Use of Energy in Industries and Cities

Evaluation of Environmental and Economic Sustainability for the Building Envelope of Low-Carbon Schools

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