ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY PERFORMANCES OF BUILDING PRODUCTS: A WORKING CHAIN BASED ANALYSIS

The present work is aimed at investigating the environmental and energy performances of products to be utilized in buildings. Specifically, marble (Section 1), granite (Section 2) and natural materials (Section 3) will be analyzed. The marble features are here studied on the basis of a field working chain audit. Particularly, two representative firms of the Custonaci productive basin (Trapani) have been considered. Their working chain have been investigated, by the point of view of the energy and materials flows, with a classical Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. Moreover, the social and economic impacts of such materials have also been assessed by means of the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) approaches. By the way, the here presented S-LCA study represents one of the few presently available in the literature. The granite has been analyzed by an energy and materials point of view, in the aim of singling out the possibility of reducing the amount of energy involved in the productive process along with the potentiality for reusing the waste materials resulting from the present working chain. The study refers to Spanish firms, due to the period that the author spent in this country, thanks to a PhD fellowship granted by the University of Palermo. The possibility of utilizing natural materials, like hay and hemp, has been finally investigated by means of an experimental approach. The studies was conducted in the laboratory for indoor and building materials currently operating within the Department DEIM of the University of Palermo

Un questionario per un’analisi di sostenibilità: il primo passo verso la Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

L’obiettivo principale di questo lavoro è la presentazione di un questionario, quale strumento d’indagine per la raccolta di dati primari per l’analisi delle prestazioni di sostenibilità di un prodotto edile. In particolare, tale questionario renderà più agevole la fase di raccolta dei dati finalizzati all’implementazione della Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) ai principali materiali utilizzati in edilizia. Il settore edile in Sicilia riveste un ruolo rilevante, nonostante la crisi, e questo lo rende un settore strategico per uno sviluppo di tipo sostenibileThe main target of this work is the presentation of a questionnaire as a useful tool to collect primary data for a sustainability assessment of building products. The questionnaire will facilitate data collection, to implement the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment methodology (LCSA) to the main building materials. The building sector plays a meaningful role in Sicily, towards a sustainable development

Is the Eco-label EU Decision for hard coverings really capable of capturing the environmental performances of the marble productive chain? A field verification by means of a life cycle approach

Purpose This work intends to show whether the Eco-label EU Decision for hard coverings, in which marble is contemplated among hard coverings as a natural product, is really capable of capturing the environmental performances of the marble productive chain, in other words whether it is actually viable for the natural products, like marble. Methods After a preliminary critical analysis of the suitability formarble of the current EU Decision (2009/607/EC), a classical life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology has been applied on the field to the marble “Perlato di Sicilia.” More specifically, the whole productive chain of a couple of firms treating the “Perlato di Sicilia” marble has been examined. The life cycle analysis is actually a cradle-to-gate analysiswhich includes the raw material extraction, processing phase, and finishing operations. Results and discussion Both the preliminary critical analyses of the structure of the Decision and the in-field checking on the two firms of the Custonaci marble district in Sicily singled out several conflicting points of the Decision for the marble working chain. These difficulties could be reasonably extended to other natural stones, such as granite, for which similar working processes are applied. Based on the outcomes of both these analyses, in the present work, a set of new indicators and modified criteria, already present in the Decision, is proposed as a candidate to be considered for inclusion in a future release of the Decision. Conclusions The changes here introduced can represent a useful indication toward a more suitable scheme of the EU Eco-label for marble, at least. Clearly, further investigations need to better assess the proposed scheme, especially in terms of threshold values of pollutant releases and use of explosive that are actually specific for the marble productive chain. The present modified version of the standard has been proposed to the Sicilian administration in order to be voluntarily adopted by marble productive sites of the region, in the aim of extensively verifying its suitability

Toward a holistic environmental impact assessment of marble quarrying and processing: proposal of a novel easy-to-use IPAT-based method

Marble is a natural dimension stone that is widely used in building due to its resistance and esthetic qualities. Unfortunately, some concerns have arisen regarding its production process because quarrying and processing activities demand significant amounts of energy and greatly affect the environment. Further, performing an environmental analysis of a production process such as that of marble requires the consideration of many environmental aspects (e.g., noise, vibrations, dust and waste production, energy consumption). Unfortunately, the current impact accounting tools do not seem to be capable of considering all of the major aspects of the (marble) production process that may affect the environment and thus cannot provide a comprehensive and concise assessment of all environmental aspects associated with the marble production process. Therefore, innovative, easy, and reliable methods for evaluating its environmental impact are necessary, and they must be accessible for the non-technician. The present study intends to provide a contribution in this sense by proposing a reliable and easy-to-use evaluation method to assess the significance of the environmental impacts associated with the marble production process. In addition, an application of the method to an actual marble producing company is presented to demonstrate its practicability. Because of its relative ease of use, the method presented here can also be used as a Bselfassessment^ tool for pursuing a virtuous environmental policy because it enables company owners to easily identify the segments of their production chain that most require environmental enhancement

Energy and environmental analysis of marble productive sites: «by phases» and «by single process» combined approach

The approach on which the in force Community eco-label scheme of marble relies (EU Decision 607/2009) is questioned, as a contribution to the on-going revision process of the associated ecological criteria. An alternative approach able to provide a more realistic image of the marble producing site’s energy and environmental performances is also argued. The proposed approach considers the marble production in terms not only of life cycle phases (as the Decision does) but of unit operations and/or machineries (as the typical assessment methodologies of production processes do). An application of this proposal on a marble producing site located in Sicily

The role of transportation and its involved sources of energy in the environmental assessment of marble producing sites

Marble is acquiring large popularity as building material. Since building materials are now required to be characterized by high energy and environmental performances, marble is entailed to fulfill top-level requirements. About its environmental performances an important European Decision establishes criteria for the award of the Community eco-label to this material. Unfortunately, this Decision is focused on mining and processing activities, seemingly neglecting marble transport. In contrast, this phase affects the whole working chain because it releases (pollutant) emissions and involves the use of primary and, in case, secondary energy sources. Here, the focus is on the role played by transport in the environmental impact exerted by the marble production process. In addition, the sources of energy, needed to move the material through its working chain, are pointed out. On purpose, a field-enquiry referred to a typical Sicilian marble producing site is presented here