Life Cycle Assessment Framework for Embodied Environmental Impacts of Building Construction Systems

Abstract

This paper develops a life cycle assessment framework for embodied environmental impacts of building construction systems. The framework is intended to be used early in the design stage to assist decision making in identifying sources of higher embodied impacts and in selecting sustainable design alternatives. The framework covers commonly used building construction systems such as reinforced concrete construction (RCC), hot-rolled steel construction (HRS), and light steel construction (LSC). The system boundary is defined for the framework from cradle-to-grave plus recycling and reuse possibilities. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and life cycle assessment are integrated in the developed framework to evaluate life cycle embodied energy and embodied greenhouse emissions of design options. The life cycle inventory data used to develop the framework were extracted from BIM models for the building material quantities, verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for the material production stage, and the design of construction operations for the construction and end-of-life stages. Application of the developed framework to a case study of a university building revealed the following results. The material production stage had the highest contribution to embodied impacts, reaching about 90%. Compared with the conventional RCC construction system, the HRS construction system had 41% more life cycle embodied energy, while the LSC construction system had 34% less life cycle embodied energy. When each system was credited with the net benefits resulting from possible recycling/reuse beyond building life, the HRS construction system had 10% less life cycle embodied energy, while the LSC construction system had 68% less life cycle embodied energy. Similarly, the HRS construction system had 29% less life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while the LSC construction system had 62% less life cycle GHG emissions. Sustainability assessment results showed that the RCC construction system received zero Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credit points, the HRS construction system received three LEED credit points, while the LSC construction system received five LEED credit points.

Coherent Investigation on a Smart Kinetic Wooden Façade Based on Material Passport Concepts and Environmental Profile Inquiry

“…Contaminants are released into the receiving environment at the life cycle of goods, facilities, and systems, such as air, water, and soil. The human-health toxicity feature is described as DALY per kg of chemicals released into a given environment [ 72 ]. Emission inventories of various materials will include hundreds of chemicals, which could cause adverse effects to people and habitats.…”

“… The impact of resource consumption on the selected façade wooden material environmental [ 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 ]. …”

“… The impact of the greenhouse effect on the selective façade of wooden material [ 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 ]. …”

An Evaluation of the Impact of Databases on End-of-Life Embodied Carbon Estimation

“…Therefore, any amendments in these details can have a significant impact on the results of the estimation. Generic databases should be used with caution, as they cannot be assumed to possess similar features as those of other geographic regions where both material production and construction processes differ [34]. The data should fit conditions of the geographical area of production and construction procedures.…”

Concrete Structures and Their Impacts on Climate Change and Water and Raw Material Resource Depletion

“…Assessment of the environmental parameters of building materials, structures and entire buildings based on the LCA approach was recently presented by many authors [26][27][28][29][30]. Table 1 presents the research papers on the Web of Science database when using the selected key words regarding the buildings and building materials and LCA.…”