the life cycle performance of sustainable renovation concepts

Amount of housesIn the next three sections, the desirability of these three options are evaluated on thebasis of the principle people, planet, profit defined by Elkington (1997). This principle isdescribed in more detail in subparagraph 3.2.1, page 32.DEMOLITION AND NEW DEVELOPMENTThe first option is to demolish existing houses and replace them by new houses thatconsume less energy. This option is characterized by several disadvantages.The first disadvantage is that demolishing houses results in large waste streams and alarge demand for new materials. The current construction sector is estimated to generateapproximately 40% of all man-made waste (Sunnika, 2006). According to the WorldWatch Institute the entire global community will run out of raw building materials byapproximately 2030 if the current trend continues (Brown, 1990).The second disadvantage is that demolishing existing houses destructs capital. Thiscapital can be sub divided between human capital and capital as in value of the houseitself. The social structure that is inextricable connected to the built environmentrepresents a certain capital. This is demolished when existing buildings are replaced bynew buildings. Also the capital that is represented by the building itself is demolished.The third disadvantage is that demolishing houses contributes to the scarcity ofaffordable houses in the Netherlands and thereby will result in higher housing prices,what makes it more difficult for starters to enter the housing market. Lastly, the pace ofreplacement of the current builtenvironment is too slow to have asignificant influence on the energyuse and CO 2 emissions to meet therequirements of the EU targets in2020. Figure 5 shows the number ofbuildings that are demolished anddeveloped in the period 1995-2008in the Netherlands. The figure showsthat approximately 20.000 housesare demolished each year. Regardingthe fact that the current Dutchhousing market consists of about7.000.000 houses, it takes about350 years (=7.000.000/20.000) toreplace the total current housingstock in the Netherlands. However,FIGURE 5 - RENEWAL OF THE DUTCH HOUSING MARKET. SOURCE:CBS12000010000080000600004000020000this option also provides advantages. First, new development leads to an increasedsupply of a scarce good (houses with a higher energy performance). Secondly, the reuseof materials like roof tiles is easy to execute. Lastly, it is possible that the quality andesthetics of the existing houses is low in such a way, that renovation is not attractive toexecute. In this case, demolition and new development can be the most attractivealternative.MORE NEW DEVELOPMENTThe second option to speed up the transition process is to increase the pace of newhousing development on new locations. In the first place it seems to be an effectivesolution to increase the supply of houses with a higher energy performance because thismeasure can be used to increase the supply of affordable houses with a higher energyperformance, which is a scarce good. However, new development does not contribute toa better performance of the existing built environment. Next to that, this newdevelopment mainly causes a stream of occupants that move over from their old housesinto the new developed houses. This causes a large amount of unoccupied existinghouses. This amount of unoccupied houses results in attraction of occupants from thelower social classes to one region and in vacancy, which leads to a declining regionquality.01995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2006 2008Added housesDemolished houses10