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 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

Life cycle assessment of roads: Exploring research trends and harmonization challenges

The transparency, heterogeneity and hypotheses considered in the calculation of the environmental impacts of roads remain as barriers in the identification of low-carbon solutions. To overcome this gap, the study presents an analysis of 94 papers obtained in a systematic literature review of the Scopus, Science direct, Mendeley, Springer Link, and Web of Science databases. From a total of 417 road case studies, only 18% were found to be fully transparent, reproducible, and likely to present reliable results. The road design parameters of the speed limit were provided in 11% of cases and the average annual daily traffic data were provided in 42%. Limited data were found for the dimensions of road elements such as the number (77%) and width of lanes (33%), shoulders (15%), footpaths (5%), berm (1%) or foreslope (4%). The source of the life cycle inventory was presented in 57% of the case studies, impact assessment method was indicated in 22%, and the software utilized was stated in 50%. Lack of information was observed in the description of the type of materials employed in road projects. In addition, the large heterogeneity in the definitions of the functional unit, system boundary and in the reference study period of repair, replacement, rehabilitation or end-of-life for both flexible and rigid pavement does not support the identification of the most environmentally friendly solution. Based on results of the analsis,several recommendations for design parameters and life cycle assessment aspects are proposed to support a harmonized calculation of the environmental impacts of road projects.publishedVersio

A cross-platform modular framework for building Life Cycle Assessment

In recent years the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for assessing and improving the environmental performance of buildings has increased. At the same time, the automated optimization of building designs is gaining attraction for both design and research purposes. In this regard, a number of issues persist when aiming to optimize building’s environmental impacts along the design process. Firstly, as LCA applies a life cycle perspective, many aspects have to be considered (e.g. energy demand in operation as well as consumption of resources and energy for production and end of life treatment) and a variety of specific calculations is needed (e.g. building energy performance simulation, material quantity take-off). Secondly, sophisticated software packages are available and being used for each of these calculations (e.g. software for building modelling, dynamic energy simulation, quantity surveying). Though many of these software packages are currently standalone applications that rely on human interaction, there is an increasing trend to provide an application programming interface (API) that enables customization and automation. Thirdly, the mentioned processes and calculations are influencing each other in various ways and several scenarios have to be assessed. Thus, a comprehensive and modular approach is required that promotes interconnectivity of the different software solutions and automation of the assessment. In this paper we propose a modular cross-platform framework for LCA of buildings aiming to support flexibility and scalability of building LCA. We present a conceptual framework, example data exchange requirements and highlight potential implementation strategies