INDUSTRIAL BUILDING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT(LCA)

CASE STUDY USING THREE DIFFERENT LCA SOFTWARE TOOLS

JOHANNA MERO, RAMBOLL FINLAND OY

31.5.2016 - WBC16 - TAMPERE HALL

BACKGROUND

- In the EU, buildings and the construction sector accountfor:

- 42 % of final energy consumption

- 35 % of GHG emissions

- 50 % of extracted raw materials

- 30 % of overall water consumption

- Legislation and regulation is becoming stricter and the industry is also developingvoluntary actions and initiatives to tackle these problems.

- Awareness of industry actors is rising simultaneously with demand from the clients’ side

Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) is a tool that

helps quantifying theenvironmental impacts

over the wholebuilding life cycle

Only themeasurable ismanageable

The results can beused to supportdecision makingthroughout the

project

BUILDING LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

EN 15978-2011

1. Quantify the environmental life cycle impacts of anindustrial building.

2. See how the results settle in line with existing LCAresults obtained for residential and office buildings.

3. Find out whether the results differ when calculatedusing three different LCA software tools.

4. Interview industry actors to form an understandingof building LCA markets.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS & GOALS

LCA PROCESS (SIMPLIFIED)

1. Construction material bill of quantities (BIM)

2. Assumptions and best estimates:

• Transportation distances, maintenance & EOLscenarios…

3. Modelling of product system in LCA software tools

à Embodied life cycle impacts

4. Energy simulations

à Operational energy use

5. Emission factors

à Operational impacts

à Total LCA results

RESULTS

Embodied impacts

Building life-cycle stage

GlobalWarmingPotential

Share oftotal

impactskg CO2e %

A1-A3 4,66E+06 84,60 %A4 1,37E+05 2,49 %B1-B3 5,20E-02 0,00 %B4-B5 2,11E+05 3,83 %C1 5,87E+04 1,07 %C2 2,94E+04 0,53 %C3-C4 4,12E+05 7,48 %

Total 5,51E+06 100

Operational impacts2,13E+07 kg CO2 eq29,3 CO2 eq/m2,year

Total impacts2,68E+07 kg CO2 eq2136 kg CO2 eq/m235,6 kg CO2 eq/m2,year

17 %

1 %1 %

79 %

2 %

Construction Materials

Transportation to site

Use, maintenance andrepairOperational energy use

End-of-life

RESULTS – CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS – 3 DIFFERENT TOOLS

SimaPro 360Optimi ILMARI

A1-3Constructionmaterialsmanufacturing

4,69E+06 4,66E+06 5,20E+06

Building life-cycle stage

0,E+00 1,E+06 2,E+06 3,E+06 4,E+06 5,E+06 6,E+06

SimaPro

360Optimi

ILMARI

Greenhouse gas emissions in kg CO2 eq

• Industrial building LCA results inline with previous research

• Commercial LCA software toolsdeveloped for industry use areable to produce results that arecomparable to building LCAresults obtained in scientificresearch

• Tool selection doesn’t seem tosignificantly affect the results

CONCLUSIONS

WHY LCA?

- To steer building design towards solution with lower environmental impacts

- Quality assurance

- Marketing and communication opportunities

- Way to separate from competitors

- To gain points in environmental certification schemes:

- LEEDv4 New Construction – MRc Building life-cycle impact reduction (3-4 p)

- BREEAM International 2016 New Construction – Mat01 Life cycle impacts (1-6 p)

- DGNB, HQE…

- Monetary benefits

31.5.2016INDUSTRIAL BUILDING LCA

QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION

Johanna Mero

M.Sc. (Tech.), Consultant, LEED AP (BD+C)Green Building, Real Estate ConsultingM +385 40 558 7101fi_________________Ramboll Finland OySäterinkatu 602601 Espoo FINLAND