A Stochastic Hybrid Embodied Energy and CO2_eq Intensity Analysis of Building and Construction Processes in Ireland

Given a general lack of research on Irish construction greenhouse gas emissions, a subsectoral embodied carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) analysis of this sector has been undertaken with the aim of overcoming some methodological challenges such as system boundary constraints, input-output aggregation, double counting of energy inputs and a general lack of data. Using this extended methodology, it is estimated that total embodied CO2-eq intensity of Irish construction in 2005 was 1,364gCO2-eq/€ with direct sub-sectoral embodied CO2-eq intensity averaging 56 gCO2-eq/€. Some 215gCO2-eq/€ is estimated to arise from domestic sources including 160gCO2-eq/€ from domestic indirect emissions. International arising emissions constituted 84% of the total. The focus of policymakers on regulating energy use in, and emissions from buildings has been on operational energy use ignoring other life cycle components such as embodied energy which can account for a significant portion of life cycle emissions. Data relating to embodied energy and emissions in buildings is limited. However, stochastic techniques can be used to estimate the distribution of emissions intensities in the building sector and sub-sectors. This thesis demonstrates this approach using apartment buildings in Ireland and how it can be used to form the basis for evidencebased policy formulation. A Monte-Carlo simulation suggests that the average probability distribution of embodied CO2-eq intensity in the sample displays the characteristics of a Wakeby distribution. The average embodied CO2-eq intensity of the sample of apartment buildings analysed was estimated to be 1,636gCO2-eq/€ with an uncertainty of 73 gCO2-eq/€. The distribution also had a long tail which can be targeted for improvement through the implementation of appropriate policies. Two policies are proposed and assessed, one regulatory and one informational. Implementing Policy Option 1 (Regulatory) for example results in an average saving of 450gCO2-eq/€

Embodied Energy Analysis: A Sustainable Construction Design Assessment Tool

Embodied energy analysis can be used as a construction design assessment tool in a sustainable matrix for a building. Its implementation however remains challenging mainly because of data measurement errors. A comparison between the deterministic embodied energy (EE) of a building and the stochastic EE of the same building undertaken using Monte Carlo simulation showed a wide variation in results. It is recommended that the specification of EE intensity of building materials in the construction industry can assist in producing accurate and more credible EE values of building

An examination of motivation factors driving investor behaviours towards socially responsible community energy initiatives

Community energy initiatives play a significant role at the grassroots level in the transition to Renewable Energy Communities and a low-carbon economy. However, these initiatives are hampered by multiple barriers at the market, institutional, organisational, and individual level. Funding cuts of state-supported feed-in tariff (FiT) policy in major markets such as Germany, Japan, China and the additional capping of the number of new installations that could be accredited under the FiT scheme in the UK. In light of these market changes and the need to accelerate the development and growth through the creation of new and/or complementary future community energy models consisting of private investors, a detailed understanding of the dynamics of community energy investor characteristics and socio-psychological motivations is increasingly important. First, a review is conducted including the theories that underpin and explain the factors that affect investor behaviour, after which a conceptual framework to examine investor behaviours towards socially responsible community energy initiatives is developed. The framework is used as the basis to construct and administer a survey involving sampling of 295 UK investors in community energy initiatives and the subsequent statistical analysis of the survey data and discussions of the findings. The results first capture the differences among investors with differingregional affect and investment behaviours. The study also provides the needed insight into better understanding the dynamics of investor characteristics and motivations of community energy initiatives. Results also indicate that investors are predominantly ethically-oriented, particularly toward environmental concerns. Additionally, community and social factors also appear to play significant roles in investor participation while financial orientation is least dominant

A data envelopment analysis based evaluation of sustainable energy generation portfolio scenarios

Generating secure, affordable, and clean energy requires careful evaluation of the costs and associated risks of different energy generation sources. Portfolio optimisation models are commonly used in this regard to help diversify risks associated with generation sources. In recent times, energy policies often require the consideration of the environmental and social effects of such activity. Consequently, sustainability has become a key factor in making energy mix planning decisions. To incorporate sustainability considerations in energy mix planning, the conventional approach has been to add indicators for environmental and social costs to the total generation cost for each available technology in a portfolio optimisation model. However, this approach to developing a sustainable generation mix may not effectively address all dimensions of sustainability. In most cases, the economic dimension is prioritised over social and environmental factors. We examine how various aggregation methods impact the preference among the sources and the optimal portfolio mix and propose aggregation methods that effectively incorporate all sustainability dimensions. We observed that technology ranking based on multiplicative, pairwise interaction, and multilinear aggregation options aligns better with our sustainability goals than additive aggregation. By adopting these methods of aggregation, we were able to include more renewable and clean energy sources in our optimal portfolios

An examination of motivation factors driving investor behaviours towards socially responsible community energy initiatives

Community energy initiatives play a significant role at the grassroots level in the transition to Renewable Energy Communities and a low-carbon economy. However, these initiatives are hampered by multiple barriers at the market, institutional, organisational, and individual level. Funding cuts of state-supported feed-in tariff (FiT) policy in major markets such as Germany, Japan, China and the additional capping of the number of new installations that could be accredited under the FiT scheme in the UK. In light of these market changes and the need to accelerate the development and growth through the creation of new and/or complementary future community energy models consisting of private investors, a detailed understanding of the dynamics of community energy investor characteristics and socio-psychological motivations is increasingly important. First, a review is conducted including the theories that underpin and explain the factors that affect investor behaviour, after which a conceptual framework to examine investor behaviours towards socially responsible community energy initiatives is developed. The framework is used as the basis to construct and administer a survey involving sampling of 295 UK investors in community energy initiatives and the subsequent statistical analysis of the survey data and discussions of the findings. The results first capture the differences among investors with differingregional affect and investment behaviours. The study also provides the needed insight into better understanding the dynamics of investor characteristics and motivations of community energy initiatives. Results also indicate that investors are predominantly ethically-oriented, particularly toward environmental concerns. Additionally, community and social factors also appear to play significant roles in investor participation while financial orientation is least dominant

A data envelopment analysis based evaluation of sustainable energy generation portfolio scenarios

Generating secure, affordable, and clean energy requires careful evaluation of the costs and associated risks of different energy generation sources. Portfolio optimisation models are commonly used in this regard to help diversify risks associated with generation sources. In recent times, energy policies often require the consideration of the environmental and social effects of such activity. Consequently, sustainability has become a key factor in making energy mix planning decisions. To incorporate sustainability considerations in energy mix planning, the conventional approach has been to add indicators for environmental and social costs to the total generation cost for each available technology in a portfolio optimisation model. However, this approach to developing a sustainable generation mix may not effectively address all dimensions of sustainability. In most cases, the economic dimension is prioritised over social and environmental factors. We examine how various aggregation methods impact the preference among the sources and the optimal portfolio mix and propose aggregation methods that effectively incorporate all sustainability dimensions. We observed that technology ranking based on multiplicative, pairwise interaction, and multilinear aggregation options aligns better with our sustainability goals than additive aggregation. By adopting these methods of aggregation, we were able to include more renewable and clean energy sources in our optimal portfolios

Development of a Construction Sub-Sector Embodied Energy Hybrid Analysis

Embodied energy analysis is used to evaluate the total energy consumed by any product during all the stages leading up to its manufacture and delivery and can also be used to determine the energy-related environmental impacts such as CO2 emissions of buildings and other built infrastructure. In the wake of increase global awareness on climate change and the strong link between global warming and CO2 emissions, the role of new and improved analytical models to evaluate the energy embodied in products and its associated environmental impacts therefore takes an important role in environmental research studies. The development of a new hybrid embodied energy analysis model which methodologically improves the accuracy of the energy intensity of the construction sector is presented in this paper. This hybrid methodology is applied to four built infrastructure and their respective energy intensities determined. The four construction projects are; a bridge and three different building types. The building types are- a 3-bedroom terrace house, a 3-bedroom semi-detached house and a 4 bedroom detached house all in Dublin, Ireland. The bridge is for a railway line spanning Cork-to-Midleton in County Cork, Ireland. A variability and uncertainty analysis termed applicability error is carried out to determine the inaccuracy in using the sectoral or average construction sector energy intensity rather than the sub-sectoral energy intensities

Sustainability assessment of energy production: A critical review of methods, measures and issues

Sustainable operations of energy production systems have become an increasingly important policy agenda globally because of the massive pressure placed on energy resources needed to support economic development and population growth. Due to the increasing research interest in examining the operational impacts of energy production systems on the society and the environment, this paper critically reviews the academic literature on the clean, affordable and secure supply of energy focussing on methods of assessments, measures of sustainability and emerging issues in the literature. While there have been some surveys on the sustainability of energy production systems they have either tended to focus on one assessment approach or one type of energy generation technology. This study builds on previous studies by providing a broader and comprehensive examination of the literature across generation technologies and assessment methods. A systematic review of 128 scholarly articles covering a 20-year period, ending 2018, and gathered from ProQuest, Scopus, and manual search is conducted. Synthesis and critical evaluation of the reviewed papers highlight a number of research gaps that exist within the sustainable energy production systems research domain. In addition, using mapping and cluster analyses, the paper visually highlights the network of dominant research issues, which emerged from the review

Supply chain mapping for improving “visilience”: A hybrid multi‐criteria decision making based methodology

Supply chain mapping is gaining heightened attention due to its vital role in improving supply chain visibility and resilience. Despite its crucial role in uplifting supply chain resilience, the critical elements of supply chain mapping are yet to be determined. The study adopts a twofold approach to identify and prioritize the dimensions and sub‐dimensions of supply chain (SC) mapping. At the first stage, through an extensive review of literature, 43 sub‐dimensions of SC mapping were identified. In the second stage, Gray ‐ DEMATEL‐based Analytic Network Process (GDANP) was employed by taking the input from 25 experts selected from Oil and Gas industry of an emerging market. The findings reveal three major dimensions of SC mapping followed by 15 sub‐dimensions. Among the dimensions, upstream mapping contains the highest priority weights, followed by midstream and downstream mapping. The findings suggest a step‐wise strategy to adopt SC mapping where upstream mapping should be given the first priority. The major contribution of this study is to develop a framework for measuring the extent of SC mapping of a firm using GDANP

Evaluating the Potential for Harmonized Prediction and Comparison of Disposal?Stage Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Biomaterial Products

The carbon footprint (CF) of biofuels and biomaterials is a barrier to their acceptance, yet the greenhouse gas emissions associated with disposing of biomaterials are frequently omitted from analyses. This article investigates whether harmonization is appropriate for calculating the importance of biomaterials’ disposal. This research shows that disposal stages could double a biomaterial's CF, or reduce it to the point that it could claim to be zero carbon. Incineration with combined heat and power coupled with on-site energy production in the biorefinery are identified as prerequisites to being zero carbon. The article assesses the current UK waste infrastructure's ability to support a low-carbon bio-based future economy, and finds that presently it only achieves marginal net reductions when compared to landfill and so cannot be said to support low-carbon biomaterials, though the article challenges the polluter pays principle where low-carbon disposal infrastructure are not available. Reuse and recycling are shown to have the potential to offset all the emissions caused by landfill of biomaterials. However, the savings are not so great as to offset the biomaterial's upstream emissions. The study explores the ability to overcome the barriers to incorporating disposal into life cycle assessment while identifying limitations of using harmonization as an assessment method. Specifically, data availability and industry consensus are flagged as major barriers. The study also uses sensitivity analysis to investigate the influence of methodological choices, such as allowing additional reuse and recycling stages, classifying biomaterials into different types, and choosing between opposing allocation methods