Design strategies for low embodied energy and greenhouse gases in buildings: analyses of the IEA Annex 57 case studies

This paper introduces the IEA Annex 57 case study method, consisting of a format for describing individual case studies and an evaluation matrix covering all case studies. Sample case studies are used to illustrate the method and the evaluation matrix through a first preliminary analysis. In compiling and evaluation existing, transparent case studies we have taken a stakeholder perspective. By so doing it is intended to identify fordecision makers the key issues affecting EE/EC in buildings. Analysis in this paper focuses on one of the six case study themes, building design strategies for EE/EC mitigation and references cases covering e.g. material selection, building shape, construction stage strategies and strategies to handle the trade-off between embodied and operational impacts in net-zero emission building design

Characterization of polyaniline-detonation nanodiamond nanocomposite fibers by atomic force microscopy based technique

Polyaniline (PANI) fibers were synthesized in presence of detonantion nanodiamond (DND) particles by precipitation polymerization technique. Morphological, electrical and mechanical characterizations of the obtained PANI/DND nanocomposited have been performed by different either standard or advanced atomic force microscopy (AFM) based techniques. Morphological characterization by tapping mode AFM supplied information about the structure of fibers and ribbons forming the PANI/DND network. An AFM based technique that takes advantage of an experimental configuration specifically devised for the purpose was used to assess the electrical properties of the fibers, in particular to verify their conductivity. Finally, mechanical characterization was carried out synergically using two different and recently proposed AFM based techniques, one based on AFM tapping mode and the other requiring AFM contact mode, which probed the nanocomposited nature of PANI/DND fiber sample down to different depths. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

IEA EBC Annex 57 ‘Evaluation of Embodied Energy and CO_2eq for Building Construction'

The current regulations to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from buildings have focused on operational energy consumption. Thus legislation excludes measurement and reduction of the embodied energy and embodied GHG emissions over the building life cycle. Embodied impacts are a significant and growing proportion and it is increasingly recognized that the focus on reducing operational energy consumption needs to be accompanied by a parallel focus on reducing embodied impacts. Over the last six years the Annex 57 has addressed this issue, with researchers from 15 countries working together to develop a detailed understanding of the multiple calculation methods and the interpretation of their results. Based on an analysis of 80 case studies, Annex 57 showed various inconsistencies in current methodological approaches, which inhibit comparisons of results and difficult development of robust reduction strategies. Reinterpreting the studies through an understanding of the methodological differences enabled the cases to be used to demonstrate a number of important strategies for the reduction of embodied impacts. Annex 57 has also produced clear recommendations for uniform definitions and templates which improve the description of system boundaries, completeness of inventory and quality of data, and consequently the transparency of embodied impact assessments

Influence of traffic load on the environmental impacts of roads:A1 and A2 highways in Austria

Abstract Professionals should aim to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by implementing the best road construction technologies to develop low-carbon projects. Although the traffic loads vary over the road length, the environmental impacts are assessed based on the average values of the traffic loads. Consequently, there is a gap between reality and the impacts calculated with fixed traffic load. This paper aims to assess the gap in terms of the environmental impacts of two roads by considering both a constant and a variable traffic load. With the help of a life cycle assessment (LCA), the environmental impacts of the A1 and A2 highways in Austria are calculated. We have calculated the impacts in the first scenario by considering an average traffic load. In the second scenario, based on real measurements, the environmental impacts of both highways are calculated for a variable traffic load. In the end, the results show a gap in the range of 25 %. This difference was because some parts of the roads required frequent repair. Besides, we figured out the optimal thickness of the wearing course, which improves the impact calculation and makes it less likely that the results will be different along the length of the road.</jats:p

Recursive Decomposition of Progress Graphs

Search of a state transition system is traditionally how deadlock detection for concurrent programs has been accomplished. This paper examines an approach to deadlock detection that uses geometric semantics involving the topo-logical notion of dihomotopy to partition the state space into components; after that the reduced state space is exhaustively searched. Prior work partitioned the state space inductively. in this paper we show that a recursive technique provides greater reduction of the size of the state transition system and therefore more efficient deadlock detection. If the preprocessing can be done efficiently, then for large problems we expect to see more efficient deadlock detection and eventually more efficient verification of some temporal properties. © 2009 IEEE

IEA EBC Annex 72 - Assessing life cycle related environmental impacts caused by buildings - Targets and tasks

Investment decisions for buildings made today largely determine their environmental impacts over many future decades due to their long lifetimes. Such decisions involve a trade-off between additional investments today and potential savings during use and at end of life - in terms of economic costs, primary energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is suited to identify measures and action to increase the resource efficiency and the environmental performance of buildings and construction. This paper gives an overview of an ongoing international research project within the IEA EBC with the overall aim to harmonise LCA approaches on buildings and foster life cycle thinking in the real estate and construction sectors. The objectives of the project are i) to establish a common methodology guideline to assess the life cycle based environmental impacts caused by buildings, ii) to establish methods for the development of specific environmental benchmarks for different types of buildings, iii) to derive regionally differentiated guidelines and tools for the use of LCA in building design and tools such as BIM, and iv) to improve data availability by developing national or regional databases with regionally differentiated LCA data tailored to the construction sector. To ensure practical solutions a number of case studies will be used to test and illustrate the consensus approaches and research issues

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of construction products in Spain:Current status and future challenges

Abstract The current decarbonisation scenario demands a decrease in embodied and operational environmental impacts of buildings, wherein the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method and the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) play a crucial role. The main objective of EPDs is to provide validated and geographically representative data to conduct LCA, since they play a major practical role in the application of LCA. However, development of EPDs in the European context remains irregular. Several countries, such as Germany and France, have a great number of EPDs of construction products, while other countries, such as Spain, present a much lower number. This study aims to analyse the existing EPDs of construction products developed in Spain, and to identify the EPD programs, the type of products (building system or element-associated), which LCA information modules are included, and the accuracy of the declared impact values. The results obtained show that ceramic cladding, gypsum plasterboard, cement, and clay products are those with the greatest number of EPDs. On the other hand, building service products have relatively few EPDs. Finally, several recommendations are proposed towards improving EPD development and challenges are detected.</jats:p

Greenhouse gas reduction strategies for building materials:A reality check with the climate targets

Abstract The increasing importance of the embodied emissions in the life cycle of buildings has led to a growing interest in strategies supporting their mitigation. In this paper are presented the environmental impacts of 10 variants of a single-family house assessed with the life cycle assessment (LCA) method. A set of potential technological improvements and strategies are applied at the material level. Their influence at the building level is discussed and the resulting global warming potentials are compared to the COP21 targets for Austrian buildings. Finally, potential trade-offs in 9 other environmental impact categories are explored. The results show that, when incorporating all of the assessed strategies for emission reduction, the embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be reduced up to 87% at the material level and 50% at the building level. Carbon capture and storage and the use of bio-based materials are to be credited for the highest share of these reductions. However, there is no version of this building that fulfils the COP21 targets. Other pathways, which do not solely rely on material-related technological improvements, should be investigated. A more radical change of the building industry might even be necessary. Overall, the implementation of the strategies decreased the environmental impacts in almost every impact category, except for freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity.</jats:p