Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

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IBO - Environmental and Health related Criteria for Buildings Embodied Energy in Building Materials The embodied energy in building materials shall be considered as a proxy indicator to assess the environmental performance of the building. For more details to lifecycle considerations see the following chapter “Life cycle assessment”. Traffic-related Energy Consumption Transports to and from sites (for construction, refurbishment, and removal of buildings) are required in an overall LCA. They contribute to only 4% of the total embodied non-renewable primary energy over the whole lifecycle. An overall assessment of primary energy does not allow differentiation. Therefore, it is more effective to optimise the traffic-related energy consumption to and from site by indicators requiring the use of (low-emitting) vehicles with efficient diesel consumption than to limit the overall primary energy demand over the lifecycle. 2.3. Life Cycle Assessment Introduction ANEC has commissioned several studies and already formed its opinion about LCA as well as its application in building assessment. Hence, the following chapter concentrates on the compilation of the main findings in the relevant studies and on recommendations concerning the use of LCA in building assessment systems. A detailed analysis of the use of LCA in the existing building assessment systems is not carried out since LCA-methodology is clearly defined in ISO 14040 and 14044. The various building assessment systems differ concerning the used indicators, the considered life cycle stages and the weighting and benchmarking of the indicators. The conclusions and recommendations concerning the use of LCA in building assessment systems rely on own experience with and knowledge of life cycle assessment of buildings and the following meta-studies (see also chapter “3.2 Background”): - European Commission / Joint Research Centre: Environmental improvement potential of residential buildings (IMPRO-Building, 2008) - European Commission / Joint Research Centre: Environmental Impact of Products (EIPRO). Analysis of the life cycle environmental impacts related to the final consumption of the EU-25 (EIPRO, 2006) - ANEC / Öko-Institut, Ökopol: Environmental product indicators and benchmarks in the context of environmental labels and declarations (PRAKASH, REINTJES, 2008). Recommendations for the use of LCA in building assessment systems LCA is an excellent tool for orientation purposes in the initial phase of environmental product labelling (or criteria setting) and for comparing system alternatives. Therefore, it will not be necessary to carry out complete LCAs by any means (as pursued by CEN/TC 350) - since orientation studies like IMPRO show that the use phase (dominated by the energy demand for heating) is the most important for new buildings, while the end-of-life phase and the construction process are of much lower importance. Final Report 8 31 03 2011
IBO - Environmental and Health related Criteria for Buildings - since it can be shown that most LCA-indicators correlate strongly with energy (IMPRO, 2008). - since the POCP-indicator of a building mainly results from the VOC-emissions of solventbased building materials. In this case the criteria shall be based on the avoidance of the use of these products instead of an elaborate LCA-indicator (LIPP, 2010). Based on this fundamental statement, we recommend the following implementation of LCA in building assessment tools: Primary energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are good proxy indicators to assess the environmental performance of the buildings (IMPRO, 2008). The gain in information by taking other LCA-indicators in account is questionable, whereas leaving them out saves oneself the question of weighting the indicators. The compactness of the building could also be a good first proxy indicator for the environmental performance of the building. We recommend considering the use phase (for more details see chapter “Energy and CO 2 - emissions”) and the manufacturing of the construction materials (cradle to gate) within a proxy LCA. The construction operation can be neglected and the improvement options for disposal processes could be expressed much better with the help of qualitative indicators (MÖTZL, 2009). All considered life-cycle stages of the building should be regarded separately. The renovation cycles should be taken into account – in principle, unless the service life of the building is limited with as short periods of service life as in IMPRO-study (40 years) or DGNB (50 years). Reference values for renovation cycles were proposed in ZELGER et al (2009) for instance. According to IMPRO (2008) the impacts caused by the construction phase of new building primarily stem from the construction of the exterior walls, the basement, and floors/ceilings. Interior walls, roof and windows only play a minor role. Our own LCA-calculations however show that the roof (in single-family houses) and the windows play must not be underestimated. Hence, we recommend taking all listed constructions into account. Interior and exterior doors, paintings, adhesives, screws and other auxiliary materials can be neglected or roughly estimated. Calculations can be made on the basis of (agreed) generic data. Methodological conventions (e.g. which energy mix to be used) must be established at the regulatory level in Europe. Standardisation should not be considered as sufficient to this end. It is strongly recommended to focus on different instruments, such as environmental impact assessment, chemical risk assessment etc. for measuring the non-LCA-indicators. There is no need to restrict the environmental assessment to mathematical operationalisation of environmental mechanism as it is practised by CEN/TC 350 at the moment. As has been shown in building assessment systems and product labelling for many years, the characterisation models of non-LCA-indicators could be formalised operations based on measurements or qualitative inventory information. Final Report 9 31 03 2011
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