Abstract
Building materials as principal components of building constructions and entire buildings play an important role in overall impact on the environment. In this paper, the environmental assessment of building materials in selected building in the Slovak Republic using life cycle assessment data is presented. Environmental parameters, such as the amount of primary energy, global warming potential and acidification potential together with weight of used materials were evaluated. For selected constructions, the alternation of materials basis was performed to minimize the negative effect of building materials. As a result of optimization a 13.5% reduction of primary energy intensity, 3.7% reduction of global warming potential and 4.2% of acidification potential were achieved for the whole building by the change of building materials.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berge, B., The Ecology of Building Materials, Oxford: Elsevier, 2009.
Stern, N., Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, UK Treasury, Australian Government, 2006. apo.org.au/research/stern-review-economics-climatechange. Accessed December 21, 2011.
Brohan, P., Kennedy, J.J., Harris, I., et al., Uncertainty Estimates in Regional and Global Observed Temperature Changes: A New Dataset from 1850, J. Geophys. Res., 2006, vol. 111, p. 21.
United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, SBCI, Building and Climate Change, Summary for Decision-Makers, 2009, Paris. www.unep.org/SBCI/pdfs/SBCI-BCCSummary.pdf. Accessed December 21, 2011
Tan, R.R. and Foo, D.C., Recent Trends in Pinch Analysis for Carbon Emissions and Energy Footprint Problems, Chem. Eng. Trans., 2009, vol. 18, p. 249.
Svoboda, S., McDonald’s Case Note: Note on Life-Cycle Analysis, 1995. pdf.wri.org/bcs-mcdonalds-life-cyclenote.pdf. Accessed December 21, 2011.
Hunt, R.G. and Franklin, W.E., Life Cycle Assessment. How It Came about: Personal Reflections on the Origin and the Development of LCA in the USA, Int. J. Life Cycle Assess., 1996, vol. 1, no. 1, p. 4.
Koroneos, C. and Kottas, G., Energy Consumption Modeling Analysis and Environmental Impact Assessment of Model House in Thessaloniki-Greece, Build. Environ., 2007, vol. 42, p. 122.
Asif, M., Muneer, T., and Kelley, R., LCA: A Case Study of a Dwelling Home in Scotland, Build. Environ., 2007, vol. 42, no. 3, p. 1391.
Junnila, S. and Horvath, A., Life Cycle Environmental Effects of an Office Building, J. Infrastruct. Syst., 2003, vol. 9, no. 4, p. 157.
Khasreen, M., Banfill, P., and Menzies, G., Life-Cycle Assessment and the Environmental Impact of Buildings: A Review, Sustainability, 2009, vol. 1, p. 674.
Bribian, I., Capilla, A., and Uson, A., Life Cycle Assessment of Building Materials: Comparative Analysis of Energy and Environmental Impacts and Evaluation of the Ecoefficiency Improvement Potential, Build. Environ., 2011, vol. 46, no. 5, p. 1133.
Junnila, S., Horvath, A., and Guggemos, A., Life-Cycle Assessment of Office Building in Europe and the USA, J. Infrastruct. Syst., 2006, vol. 12, p. 10.
Junnila, S., Life Cycle Assessment of Environmentally Significant Aspects of an Office Building, Nordic J. Surv. Real Est. Res., 2004, vol. 2, p. 81.
Thormark, C., A Low Energy Building in a Life Cycle—Its Embodied Energy, Energy Need for Operation and Recycling Potential, Build Environ., 2002, vol. 37, p. 429.
Hajek, P. and Vonka, M., A Case Study of Environmental Assessment of Housing Buildings, Proc. 4th Int. Seminar on ECS, Prague, 2010.
Blengini, G. and di Carlo, T., The Changing Role of Life Cycle Phases, Subsystems and Materials in the LCA of Low Energy Buildings, Energy Build., 2010, vol. 42, no. 6, p. 869.
Sartori, I. and Hestnes, A., Energy Use in the Life Cycle of Conventional and Low-Energy Buildings, Energy Build., 2007, vol. 39, no. 3, p. 249.
Gustavsson, L. and Sathre, R., Variability in Energy and Carbon Dioxide Balances of Wood and Concrete Building Materials, Build. Environ., 2006, vol. 41, p. 940.
Xing, S., Xu, Z., and Jun, G., Inventory Analysis of LCA on Steel and Concrete-Construction Office Buildings, Energy Build., 2008, vol. 40, p. 1188.
Guidelines for Life-Cycle Assessment: A Code of Practice. SETAC Work-Shop, Sesimbra, Portugal, 1993, p. 73.
de Benedetto, L. and Klemeš J., LCA as Environmental Assessment Tool in Waste to Energy and Contribution to Occupational Health and Safety, Chem. Eng. Trans., 2008, vol. 13, p. 343.
Melikhov, I.V., Strategy and Tactics in the Search for New Materials Technology, Theor. Found. Chem. Eng., 2011, vol. 45, no. 6, p. 801.
Udo de Haes, H.A. and Lindeijer, E., The Areas of Protection in Life Cycle Impact Assessment, in Global LCA Village, Gate to Environmental and Health Science (EHS), 2002.
Guinee, J., Handbook on Life Cycle Assessment, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002.
Pennington, D.W., Potting, J., Finnveden, et al., Life Cycle Assessment. Part 2: Current Impact Assessment Practice, Environ. Int., 2004. vol. 30, no. 5, p. 721.
Hammond, G. and Jones, C., Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE), Version1.6, University of Bath, 2008. perigordvacance.typepad.com/files/inventoryofcarbonandenergy.pdf. Accessed December, 21, 2011.
Eštoková, A., Porhinčák, M. and Ružbacký R., Minimization of CO2 Emissions and Primal Energy by Building Materials Environmental Evaluation and Optimization, Chem. Eng. Trans., 2011, vol. 25, p. 653.
Waltjen, T., Passivhaus-Bauteilkatalog: Okologisch bewertete Konstruktionen, Vienna: Springer, 2008.
Kierulf, B., http://www.createrra.sk/aktualne/Entries/2008/11/26-Vypocet_PEI,_CO2_a_SO2_files/MATERIALY_POROVNANIE_PEI_CO2_SO2.xls. Accessed April, 20, 2012.
Puettmann, M. and Wilson, J., Life-Cycle Analysis of Wood Products: Cradle-to-Gate LCI of Residential Wood Building Materials, Wood Fiber Sci., 2005, vol. 37, Corrim Special Issue, p. 18.
Egorov, A.F., Savitskaya, T.V., Levushkina, S.A., and Levushkin, A.S., Intelligent Decision Support System for Controlling the Atmospheric Air Quality, Theor. Found. Chem. Eng., 2010, vol. 44, no. 5, p. 822.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The article is published in the original.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Eštoková, A., Porhinčák, M. Reduction of primary energy and CO2 emissions through selection and environmental evaluation of building materials. Theor Found Chem Eng 46, 704–712 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0040579512060085
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0040579512060085