Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

IBO - Environmental and Health related Criteria for Buildings
of the most important contributors for each considered impact category. Residential
structures also scored highly in most impact categories (3 to 4 % of all products). The next
important products of the category “Housing, furniture, equipment and utility use” were
energy-using domestic appliances, e.g. refrigerators and washing machines.
The IMPRO-study was meant to be a scientific contribution to the European Commission’s
Integrated Product Policy (IPP). The considered environmental impact categories were
selected “based on scientific robustness, relevance and practicability” leading to the
conventional LCA-indicators: acidification, eutrophication, climate change, ozone layer
depletion, and photochemical pollution. The primary energy consumption was also
quantified.
The study concentrated on residential buildings, including all relevant types of buildings used
as household dwellings, from single-family houses to multi-apartment buildings, including
existing and new dwellings in the EU-25. The environmental impacts were analysed for
building structures and operation.
The (little surprising) results of the study concerning LCA of buildings were (IMPRO, page
xvii – xviii):
- “The first finding […]” was “the similarity of trends shown over the different impact
categories” reflecting “the important role of energy use in most of the environmental
impacts quantified, first as a result of fuel combustion for space heating, and, second, as
a result of the industry processes involved in the manufacturing of building products”.
“Consequently, both primary energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are
good proxy indicators to assess the environmental performance of the buildings.”
- “The use phase of buildings, as dominated by the energy demand for heating is by far the
highest for all buildings. For new buildings, the construction phase is also significant and
its relative importance varies from one impact category to the other. The end-of-life
phase is of much lower importance.”
- “The use phase was also shown to be most important for new buildings with, however, a
lower relative importance as a result of the better energy performance of these buildings.
Regarding the new building construction phase, the impacts primarily stem from the
construction of the exterior walls, the basement, and floors/ceilings. Interior walls, roof
and windows only play a minor role.”
The following improvement options for new and existing buildings were identified, focusing
on use phase and construction phase:
- For existing buildings measures reducing the heating and infiltration losses were shown
to be an “environmental hotspot” (IMPRO, page xxi).
- For new buildings the quantification of environmental improvement options has been
limited to the impacts from the construction phase by changing the material composition
of buildings. The results showed that significant environmental improvements could be
expected only when “conventional” products like concrete, reinforced concrete, bricks
were substituted by wood products. Precondition for this finding is that the wood is taken
from a forest under sustainable management.
It has to be mentioned that obvious improvement options like the “new concepts of passive
housing” and “zero CO 2 emissions buildings” were beyond the scope of the IMPRO-Building
Final Report 84 31 03 2011