12.05.2014 Views

Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

IBO - <strong>Environmental</strong> <strong>and</strong> Health <strong>related</strong> Criteria <strong>for</strong> Buildings<br />

Table 16: Comparison of the LCA-scores of building A <strong>and</strong> B with different functional units<br />

(area of building envelope versus gross floor area): The example shows that the<br />

LCA-scores per area of building envelope are the same in the beginning (same<br />

material composition in both building <strong>for</strong> all walls <strong>and</strong> ceilings) <strong>and</strong> can be<br />

significantly improved by exchanging the material composition in building A (from<br />

72 to 54 scores). But as one can also see is that the same effect can be reached<br />

by improving the compactness of the building.<br />

bungalow with<br />

conventional<br />

materials<br />

bungalow with<br />

optimized<br />

materials<br />

2-storey with<br />

conventional<br />

materials<br />

Length (m) 12 m 12 m 6 m<br />

Width (m) 10 m 10 m 10 m<br />

Height (m) 3 m 3 m 2 x 3 m<br />

Conditioned gross floor area 120 m 2 120 m 2 120 m 2<br />

Volume 360 m 3 360 m 3 360 m 3<br />

Total area of building envelope 372 m 2 372 m 2 276 m 2<br />

LCA-Scores / m 2 build.env.<br />

(BE)<br />

72 54 72<br />

LCA-Scores / Gross floor area 223 166 166<br />

8.4. Recommendations <strong>for</strong> the use of LCA in building assessment systems<br />

LCA is an excellent tool <strong>for</strong> orientation purposes in the initial phase of environmental product<br />

labelling (or <strong>criteria</strong> setting) <strong>and</strong> <strong>for</strong> comparing system alternatives. There<strong>for</strong>e, it will not be<br />

necessary to carry out complete LCAs by any means (as pursued by CEN/TC 350)<br />

- since orientation studies like IMPRO show that the use phase (dominated by the energy<br />

dem<strong>and</strong> <strong>for</strong> heating) is the most important <strong>for</strong> new <strong>buildings</strong>, while the end-of-life phase<br />

<strong>and</strong> the construction process are of much lower importance.<br />

- since it can be shown that most LCA-indicators correlate strongly with energy (IMPRO,<br />

2008).<br />

- since the POCP-indicator of a building mainly results from the VOC-emissions of solventbased<br />

building materials. In this case the <strong>criteria</strong> shall be based on the avoidance of the<br />

use of these products instead of an elaborate LCA-indicator (LIPP, 2010).<br />

Based on this fundamental statement, we recommend the following implementation of LCA in<br />

building assessment tools:<br />

Primary energy use <strong>and</strong> greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are good proxy indicators to<br />

assess the environmental per<strong>for</strong>mance of the <strong>buildings</strong> (IMPRO, 2008). The gain in<br />

Final Report 90 31 03 2011

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!