Investigating the Effect of Environmental Product Declaration Adoption in LEED® on the Construction Industry: A Case Study

Gelowitz, M.D.C.; McArthur, J.J.

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.014

Cited by 33 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In Poland, the Building Research Institute (ITB) has issued over 100 EPDs [15]. However, these documents are still used only in business-to-business (B2B) communication and certification processes of such systems like LEED, BREEAM, DGNB, HQE ® , and others [16][17][18]. An ordinary user of construction products knows little or nothing about EPD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental burdens of External Thermal Insulation Systems. Expanded Polystyrene vs. Mineral Wool: Case Study from Poland

Michalak¹,

Czernik²,

Marcinek³

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) improves the energy efficiency of buildings, and nowadays, this method is the most popular to insulate buildings in many European Union (EU) countries. The article presents the impact of producing ETICS with expanded polystyrene (EPS) or mineral wool (MW) on the natural environment using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. The data used in the calculations, related to 2017 real production, were obtained from the externally verified inventory from five manufacturing plants located in different regions of Poland. The LCA of the examined products covered modules from A1 to A3 (cradle-to-gate), according to EN 15804 standard. The study determines and analyses the values of basic indicators related to environmental impacts and environmental aspects of resource use. It comprises indicators calculated for 1 m2 ETICS for five thicknesses of the mentioned thermal insulation materials. Results show that for all environmental indicators, MW systems are characterized by a more negative environmental impact than the equivalent systems with EPS. The study aims to highlight knowledge about ETICS sustainability. The data presented in work are essential for assessment in terms of the sustainable development of ETICS. Such an evaluation is not just a need for the future but a necessity for the present.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental burdens of External Thermal Insulation Systems. Expanded Polystyrene vs. Mineral Wool: Case Study from Poland

Michalak¹,

Czernik²,

Marcinek³

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is also important to note that PCR development is not well-regulated. This means that the quality of PCRs varies widely, leading to harmonization issues and erratic coverage of the product market (Gelowitz & McArthur 2016;Hunsager et al 2014;Ingwersen & Stevenson 2012;Passer et al 2015;Ibáñez-Forés et al 2016;Subramanian et al 2012;Minkov et al 2015).…”

Section: Barriers To Effective Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied carbon in construction materials: a framework for quantifying data quality in EPDs

Waldman¹,

Huang

Simonen

2020

Buildings and Cities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Embodied carbon constitutes a significant portion of a building's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is a key challenge for the construction and real estate sectors. Embodied carbon includes construction product manufacturing, building construction, material replacement and end of life. During the specification and procurement stage, designers and contractors have the opportunity to prioritize products with lower carbon footprints. Environmental product declarations (EPDs) are a growing source of environmental data in the construction products market, and are increasingly being used for (1) environmental performance assessment of buildings and (2) product comparison for procurement decisions during the later stages of building design. An obstacle to identifying and purchasing lower embodied carbon products is a lack of data quality and the transparency of EPDs. However, EPDs vary widely in their data quality and specificity, which can lead to inaccurate and misleading comparisons. A new method is presented to account quantitatively for estimates of variation in underlying data specificity in EPDs to enable fairer comparisons between EPDs and to motivate the reporting of actual variability and uncertainty in EPDs. The application of this approach can help purchasers to assess EPDs quantitatively. Practice relevance Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) and LCA data can be used within the construction sector to evaluate buildings and to assist in design, specification and procurement decision-making. A new method is presented to support the assessment of comparability of functionally equivalent materials and products during the specification and procurement stage. Given the known variation and lack of precision within EPDs, this method provides quantitative metrics that correlate to a qualitative interpretation of EPD precision. This method can be used by anyone who is using EPD data to make product comparisons at the specification and procurement stage: • It provides more confidence in choosing low-carbon material or product options when comparing between functionally equivalent options. • It can incentivize product manufacturers and LCA practitioners to improve data quality and transparently report known variation in their EPDs. • It may also motivate manufacturers to reduce GHGs from their products and processes.

show abstract

“…Yet, to date, the essential characteristics for sustainable development necessary to assess the product have not been determined. Thus, the environmental aspects of construction products are voluntary, and data from EPD are used, primarily in B2B communications and involuntary building certification systems such as LEED [10,11] or BREEAM [10,12]. The number of EPDs in the European market is limited, mainly in the field of facade applications, as it is in the case of ETICS.…”

Section: Sustainable Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Rendering Type on the Environmental Characteristics of Expanded Polystyrene-Based External Thermal Insulation Composite System

Marcinek¹,

Tomaszewska

Czernik³

et al. 2020

Buildings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

External thermal insulation systems (ETICS) are relevant facade applications of functional components allowing to reduce energy consumption in buildings to fulfill the provisions of nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEBs). ETICS systems generally are made of adhesives, thermal insulation material, renders with mesh reinforcement, primers, and finish coats. Their main parameters are thermal characteristics and durability, both determined by the specific composition of the systems. Growing concerns on the environment and depletion of natural resources drive the need for the determination of the environmental characteristic of ETICS due to its growing market demand. This analysis focuses on a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a commonly used EPS based ETICS system with four different renderings, produced in several locations. The scope of this study concerns raw materials extraction, transport, production, and energy provision up to the finished, packed, and ready-for-sale product at the factory gate. The authors compared the environmental impact allocated to the 1 m 2 of the produced system by taking into account the thickness of EPS and within different environmental impact categories. The results of the current impacts were compared to those obtained five years earlier, considering the technological and environmental progress of the production process.

show abstract

Investigating the Effect of Environmental Product Declaration Adoption in LEED® on the Construction Industry: A Case Study

Cited by 33 publications

References 11 publications

Environmental burdens of External Thermal Insulation Systems. Expanded Polystyrene vs. Mineral Wool: Case Study from Poland

Environmental burdens of External Thermal Insulation Systems. Expanded Polystyrene vs. Mineral Wool: Case Study from Poland

Embodied carbon in construction materials: a framework for quantifying data quality in EPDs

Influence of Rendering Type on the Environmental Characteristics of Expanded Polystyrene-Based External Thermal Insulation Composite System

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About