Life-Cycle Assessment of Office Buildings in Europe and the United States

Junnila, Seppo; Horvath, Arpad; Guggemos, Angela Acree

doi:10.1061/(asce)1076-0342(2006)12:1(10)

Cited by 291 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…After 50 years, the Finnish building consumed about 35% less total energy and emitted about 49% less total CO 2 than the office building in the United States (Junnila, Horvath, & Guggemos, 2006). In either case, despite the differences in climate and location, the two offices buildings had a similar breakdown of embodied energy (and CO 2 emissions) and operating energy (and CO 2 emissions).…”

Section: Junnila Et Al's Studymentioning

confidence: 96%

“…After 50 years of operation, Junnila et al (2006) calculated the breakdown of total energy use for the Finnish office building to be: materials (6.4%), construction (2.1%), use-phase (87.1%), maintenance (4.1%), end-of-life (0.3%). In terms of CO 2 emissions, this breakdown was: materials (9.8%), construction (1.5%), use-phase (83.0%), maintenance (5.3%), end-of-life (0.4%).…”

Section: Junnila Et Al's Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The life-cycle assessment of a single-storey retail building in Canada

Ooteghem¹,

Lei²

2012

Building and Environment

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In North America, the operation of buildings accounts for approximately one third of the total energy use and greenhouse gas emissions annually. Office buildings are responsible for roughly 35% of the total commercial/institutional secondary energy use in Canada, followed by retail buildings at 17% (NRCan, OEE, 2010).In recent years, a number of researchers from around the world have conducted life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies to investigate the impacts of buildings on the environment. Most studies have focused on three types of buildings: office buildings, single residential dwellings, and multi-unit residential apartments. There have been almost no comprehensive LCA studies of retail buildings, specifically single-storey retail buildings. This is a problem, since compared to office buildings, single residential dwellings, and multi-unit residential apartments, retail buildings consume approximately 1.2, 2.0, and 2.3 times more energy per floor area respectively (NRCan, OEE, 2010). In addition, retail buildings usually undergo major resource intensive renovations far sooner than other building types. Therefore, the primary goal of this study was to conduct a comprehensive LCA for the components of a singlestorey retail building located in Toronto, Canada, to determine which building components contribute the most towards the total life-cycle energy use and global warming potential (GWP) after 50 years.Using the latest LCA techniques, the total life-cycle energy use and GWP was calculated for 220 different building components including: exterior infill walls, roofs, structural systems, floors, windows, doors, foundations, and interior partition walls. Also, a comprehensive LCA study was conducted for five single-storey retail buildings (including a pre-engineered steel building system which is lacking in the literature), in order to determine which components of a single-storey retail building are responsible for the most environmental damage.For a typical single-storey retail building located in Toronto, Canada, the operating energy (and GWP) accounts for about 91% (88%) and the total embodied energy (and GWP) accounts for about 9% (12%) of the total energy (and GWP) after 50 years. The roof alone is responsible for nearly half of the total embodied energy and GWP of the entire building. The LCA study also found that after 50 years, the total energy (and GWP) of the five case study buildings only differed at most by 6% (7%), regardless of the choice of structural system, or whether the building was made predominately of steel or wood building components. This thesis concludes with a prioritized list of recommendations for reducing the total life-cycle energy use and GWP of a single-storey retail building in Canada.iv

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Section: Junnila Et Al's Studymentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Junnila Et Al's Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The life-cycle assessment of a single-storey retail building in Canada

Ooteghem¹,

Lei²

2012

Building and Environment

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“…One of the contributors to embodied carbon that can be regulated to reduce the embodied carbon of a building is the construction emissions associated with the operation of construction equipment and the use of temporary construction materials [101][102][103][104].…”

Section: Construction Optimization Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation and Minimization of Embodied Carbon of Buildings: A Review

2017

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Building and construction is responsible for up to 30% of annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, commonly reported in carbon equivalent unit. Carbon emissions are incurred in all stages of a building's life cycle and are generally categorised into operating carbon and embodied carbon, each making varying contributions to the life cycle carbon depending on the building's characteristics. With recent advances in reducing the operating carbon of buildings, the available literature indicates a clear shift in attention towards investigating strategies to minimize embodied carbon. However, minimizing the embodied carbon of buildings is challenging and requires evaluating the effects of embodied carbon reduction strategies on the emissions incurred in different life cycle phases, as well as the operating carbon of the building. In this paper, the available literature on strategies for reducing the embodied carbon of buildings, as well as methods for estimating the embodied carbon of buildings, is reviewed and the strengths and weaknesses of each method are highlighted.

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“…This may involve identifying environmental hotspots in production processes as well as considering upstream or downstream processes such as energy sources, product additives, end-of-life management options or by-products consumed in the product use phase [19]. LCA results can also be used as part of the environmental management system to prove continuous improvement or to provide information for ecolabeling or environmental rating schemes [20]. LCA quantifies whether a product is environmentally friendly or not.…”

Section: Life Cycle Assessment (Lca)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However this technique enabled the analysis, but issues of rational methodology between economic assessments and environmental assessments remained same. Junnila et al [20,25] presented a method of calculating the economic and environmental life cycle costs in one assessment model and also proposed another method in which LCA and LCC were combined together to address the life cycle green costs of buildings. A life cycle management approach was proposed in this study for large-scale development resorts, where LCC and LCA were linked together in order to create designs that provide environmental sustainability with low operational costs [26].…”

Section: Combining Life Cycle Costing and Life Cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Model for Selection of Centralized Chilled Water Generation — Review Paper

Akbar

Mokhtar

2017

MATEC Web Conf.

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Abstract. This paper presents a review of literature relating to Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) in Gas District Cooling plant. The gas district cooling plant uses either vapour compression process or absorption process for the chilled water generation. Both processes have impacts on the economic aspects as well as the contribution to CO2 emissions; thus, integration of the cost and environmental analysis of both processes are necessary. An extensive body of literature exists on both subjects, however, there is very limited number of available literature on the integration of LCC and LCA. The purpose of this review is to find the most suitable optimization model which can integrate the LCC and LCA to provide the best decision in choosing the most cost-effective and environment-friendly system. This review assesses the literature from thirtyfour journals, research papers, and case reports from the year 1995 to 2017. The result of this review shows that the goal programming methodology is the appropriate method for integrating LCC and LCA because it provides the optimal decision in choosing the most cost-effective, environmentfriendly system for the chilled water generation.

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Life-Cycle Assessment of Office Buildings in Europe and the United States

Cited by 291 publications

References 9 publications

The life-cycle assessment of a single-storey retail building in Canada

The life-cycle assessment of a single-storey retail building in Canada

Estimation and Minimization of Embodied Carbon of Buildings: A Review

Integrating Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Model for Selection of Centralized Chilled Water Generation — Review Paper

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