Analysis of timber as sustainable material for construction

Comunicació presentada a IN-TECH 2014 International Conference on Innovative Technologies (Leiria, Portugal 10-13, september 2014).Facing the climate change scenario, professionals and technicians of civil engineering and architecture are searching for ecological solutions and construction methods that would allow for higher energy-efficiency and then reduce environmental impacts. Timber represents one of the best choices for energy-efficient construction, since it also functions as a material with good thermal transmittance properties if compared to other construction materials. This work analyses the possibilities and benefits that wood offers for the construction industry, in terms of sustainability. On the one hand, the sustainable forest management system contributes to ensure the quality and well-management in the exploitation of the forest in order to produce timber and other sub-products such as cork, paper and tree resins. In relation to this, the construction industry has an important role to increase the level of sustainable products by demanding certified timber. On the other hand, due to its Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), timber has the lower energy consumption compared to other building materials, as well as the CO2 stored and saved contributes to mitigate climate change. The LCA stages for the production of timber, the potential of saving carbon emissions and its comparison with other building products are presented. Concerning energy efficiency, once timber is implemented in a building taking part of the structure or as cladding material, it provides a high insulation decreasing the thermal transmittance of the walls, roofs, floors and windows. Its versatility as construction material also enables obtaining innovative solutions which can be implemented in buildings, as it is presented in this study. The optimum energy performance and low carbon emissions of timber make from this product a suitable and sustainable material to be highly considered for the construction industry

Environmental and cost performance of building’s envelope insulation materials to reduce energy demand: Thickness optimisation.

Thermal insulation materials play an important role in the challenge of nearly zero-energy buildings thanks to their potential in reducing building’s energy demand and carbon emissions. However, increasing the thickness of the insulation material in the building’s envelope has implications from the energy, environmental and economic viewpoints. In this context, efforts should be made to optimise insulation thickness to balance all these aspects. This study presents a methodology to analyse optimum insulation material for the building’s envelope (roof, façade and floor) and its thickness to achieve energy demand reductions in the operation phase of the building, which is based on the Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing methodologies to integrate both environmental and economic aspects, respectively. The system boundary includes the life cycle stages of product and use defined by recent European standards. A selection of eleven alternative insulation materials, both conventional and emerging ones based on natural products, were chosen to conduct the study. After applying the methodology to a single-family house in Spain and performing a sensitivity analysis, the results revealed that sheep wool and recycled cotton, jointly with traditionally used mineral and glass wool, should be promoted in the construction industry as they offer the highest eco-efficient performance among the analysed insulation materials. Reductions of up to 40% in energy demand compared to regulations standards can be achieved in theeco-efficiency context

Carbon metric of the household sector in the use stage according to ISO 16745: A case study

The upward trend in the residential sector of energy use has significant consequences in terms of environmental impacts. Determining the carbon metric (CM), as part of the whole carbon footprint of a building, contributes to quantify the carbon emissions related to the building's use stage. Although many carbon footprint calculators exist in other sectors, none has been specifically designed and applicable to the building one. However, ISO 16745 provides guidelines for calculating and reporting the CM of existing buildings in operation. In this context, this work sets a methodology to measure the CM of existing households' use stage, based on ISO 16745 and split into three stages. The implementation of the methodology to a case study proved its applicability since it enabled the data collection task through the designed survey, and allowed the energy carriers and end-uses be disaggregated, quantified and clearly reported for user's knowledge. The study outlined that calculating the CM and, more specifically, reporting and making the results publicly available, help raise users' awareness about reducing greenhouse gas-related emissions, and provide new ideas for monitoring, benchmarking and proposing policies at individual member state and EU levels

Environmental and cost comparison of different insulation materials for the building’s envelope to reduce energy demand

Comunicación presentada en el 21st International Congress on Project Management and Engineering CIDIP 2017(Cádiz, 12th - 14th July 2017).Thermal insulation materials play an important role in the challenge of nearly zero-energy buildings due to their potential in reducing building’s energy demand and carbon emissions. However, increasing the insulation material thickness in the building’s envelope has implications both from the energy, environmental and economic point of view. This study presents a comparison among different insulation material for the building’s envelope (roof, façade and floor) to achieve energy demand reductions during the operation phase of the building. To do so, the Life Cycle Assessment and the Life Cycle Costing methodologies are applied to eleven alternative insulation materials, both conventional and those emerging based on natural products, and six energy efficiency scenarios. As a case study, a detached singlefamily house located on the east coast of Spain has been selected. The results reveal that sheep wool and recycled cotton, jointly with the traditionally-used mineral and glass wool, are the most eco-efficient alternatives.Los materiales de aislamiento térmico juegan un papel importante en diseño de los edificios de energía casi nula debido a su gran potencial en la reducción de la demanda energética del edificio y las emisiones de efecto invernadero. Sin embargo, el aumento del espesor del material aislante en la envolvente del edificio tiene implicaciones energéticas, ambientales y económicas. En este contexto, este estudio presenta una comparación entre diferentes materiales de aislamiento térmico de la envolvente del edificio (cubierta, fachada y suelo) con el fin de reducir la demanda energética durante la fase de uso del mismo. Para ello, se aplican las metodologías de Análisis de Ciclo de Vida y Coste de Ciclo de Vida a once materiales aislantes alternativos, tanto convencionales como emergentes basados en productos naturales en seis escenarios de reducción de la demanda energética. Como caso de estudio, se ha seleccionado una vivienda unifamiliar aislada ubicada en la costa este de España. Los resultados revelan que la lana de oveja y el algodón reciclado, conjuntamente con la lana mineral y de vidrio tradicionalmente utilizadas, son las alternativas más eco-eficientes

Green public procurement in office buildings: integration of building sustainability assessment tools criteria

Comunicació presentada al 23rd International Congress on Project Management and Engineering (Málaga, 10-12 July 2019).Each year European Union (EU) public authorities spend the equivalent of 17% the EU Gross Domestic Product on the purchase of goods, services and works. In this line, Green Public Procurement (GPP) can shape production and consumption trends and a significant demand from public authorities for greener goods will create or enlarge markets for environmentally friendly products and services, also increasing innovation and efficiency in the use of energy and materials. Particularly, the construction sector is greatly responsible for environmental pollution and problems related to sustainability and is required to be proactive in improving its performance as one of the primary sectors, where GPP can boost significant potential to drive the creation of a greener economy. In parallel, tools for Building Sustainability Assessment (BSA) provide an estimate of the impact of a building on the environment according to its site location, based on Environmental Impact Assessment methodology. This study provides an analysis of the GPP criteria for the sector of office building design, construction and management, and the criteria covered by the BSA tool VERDE (Green Building Council Spain).Las autoridades públicas de la Unión Europea (UE) invierten un 17% del Producto Interior Bruto de la UE en la compra de bienes, servicios y obras. En este contexto, la Compra Pública Verde (CPV) tiene la capacidad de establecer las tendencias sobre producción y consumo, de manera que una demanda de bienes verdes por parte de las autoridades fomenta la ampliación de mercados basados en productos y servicios respetuosos con el medio ambiente, incrementando también la innovación y eficiencia en el uso de energía y recursos materiales. En concreto, el sector de la edificación es responsable de gran parte de los problemas ambientales relacionados con la sostenibilidad y por ello es un sector prioritario en el que la CPV tiene un potencial significativo. Paralelamente, las herramientas para la Evaluación de la Sostenibilidad de los Edificios proporcionan una estimación del impacto ambiental de un edificio de acuerdo a su localización, basándose en la metodología de Evaluación del Impacto Ambiental. Este estudio presenta un análisis de los criterios de CPV para el sector de los edificios de oficinas, en su diseño, construcción y gestión, y los criterios de la herramienta de certificación de la sostenibilidad de edificios VERDE (Green Building Council España)

Relationship between green public procurement criteria and sustainability assessment tools applied to office buildings.

Green Public Procurement (GPP) plays an important role in facing the challenge of reducing the environmental impacts from construction sector-related products, services and works, and creating environmental and innovative value for society in favour of a greener and more sustainable economy. The European Commission recently developed GPP criteria for the “office buildings” category. In parallel, Building Sustainability Assessment (BSA) tools help estimate a building’s impact on the environment based on a life cycle approach. Many of the aspects and measurable indicators included in BSA tools are clearly related to the criteria covered by GPP. However, other important ones are missing and should be integrated to ensure green procurement initiatives. This study critically reviews the GPP criteria proposed for office buildings and crosschecks them with the sustainability indicators included in three BSA tools to reinforce the GPP framework for the office buildings sector. It provides, on the one hand, an evaluation of the rate of improvement achieved in the tools when applying GPP criteria and, on the other, a proposal for a weighting system for awarding points to the offers in tenders. The results will help contracting authorities to introduce more objectivity into the tendering process and to make informed decisions while evaluating bidders’ proposals

Sustainability on the urban scale: proposal of a structure of indicators for the Spanish context

Some efforts to assess sustainability on the urban scale have been made and different tools for measuring the impact on and caused by cities have emerged. However, the sustainability concept varies from region to region, and indicators to measure it should be suitable for the context-specific conditions of the region under study. After doing a comprehensive review of the indicators included in 13 tools developed to assess urban sustainability of cities, this article proposes a new structure of indicators adapted to a Mediterranean city in Spain. The proposed structure is based on a two-level scheme that consists in 14 categories and 63 subcategories, which agglutinate urban sustainability indicators according to their purpose. This structure suggests a set of comprehensible qualitative and quantitative indicators that are easily applicable on neighbourhood or city scales. Given the similar features of Mediterranean countries in terms of environmental and socio-economic aspects, the proposed structure could be extrapolated to other countries with climatic and cultural similarities. Otherwise, the system is a useful tool in the decision-making process to help the different stakeholders involved in new urban developments and regeneration projects in existing neighbourhoods, such as developers, urban planners and public administrations

Influence of the climate zone in the selection of thermal insulation materials from an eco-efficiency perspective

Comunicació presentada al XXII Congreso Internacional de Dirección e Ingeniería de Proyectos. CIDIP 2018 (Madrid, 11-13 de Julio 2018)The potential of thermal insulation materials in reducing the energy demand of buildings is key element in meeting the regulatory requirements for energy efficiency of buildings. Their thickness and thermal properties affect the thermal resistance of the building envelope, which depend on the climate zone where it is located. This communication presents a methodology that allows to identify, from the environmental and economic point of view, the eco-efficiency of the use of insulation materials to meet the regulatory requirements in terms of energy savings established by the CTE and to compare the results for the different climatic zones of the Spanish territory. The methodology is applied to a single-family house in which a total of eleven thermal insulation materials are compared, both conventional and emerging derived from natural products, and five climatic zones with different winter climate severity.El potencial de los materiales de aislamiento térmico en la reducción de la demanda energética de los edificios resulta clave para cumplir con las exigencias normativas en materia de eficiencia energética. Su espesor y propiedades térmicas condicionan la resistencia térmica de la envolvente del edificio, que dependen de la zona climática donde se ubica. Esta comunicación presenta una metodología que permite identificar, desde el punto de vista ambiental y económico, la ecoeficiencia del uso de materiales de aislamiento para cumplir las exigencias normativas en materia de ahorro de energía establecidas por el CTE y realizar una comparativa para las diferentes zonas climáticas del territorio español. La metodología se aplica a una vivienda unifamiliar en la que se comparan un total de once materiales de aislamiento térmico, tanto convencionales como emergentes derivados de productos naturales, y cinco zonas climáticas con diferente severidad climática de invierno

Exploring residential urban form patterns: a Spanish case study

Rapid urban growth in recent years has increasingly compromised urban environments and made urban sustainability assessment quite challenging. Breaking down the city structure into smaller systems enables its complexity to be simplified. This work provides a methodology for defining the urban taxonomy of cities by characterizing the urban form patterns of its residential building stock into four different scales. The methodology enables the urban morphology of the city to be standardized, overcoming the barrier of building stock heterogeneity posed by cities, and considers a comprehensive review of the historic and urban planning development as starting point. The methodology proposed herein is supported by GIS technology and can be applied to medium-sized cities. It was validated by applying to the city of Castellón de la Plana, a Spanish Mediterranean coastal city. As main outcome of this research, the urban taxonomy has been obtained and building types in an average block have been standardized, allowing the definition of representative urban form patterns. This methodology can be useful for the stakeholders involved in urban decision-making processes when analysing socio-economic aspects, energy issues, the impact of different technological options or the promotion of sustainable urban development initiatives, among others

Exploring how waste management is being approached in green building rating systems: A case study

Green building rating systems (GBRS) propose sets of indicators to measure the level of sustainability of buildings, and include waste as one of the categories to be assessed. Yet, both the number of indicators and their aim, as well as the waste fraction they refer to, vary greatly from one system to another. This study identifies the waste-related indicators included in 10 global GBRS. They are classified on the basis of different criteria (waste fraction assessed, stages of the life cycle of the building, waste hierarchy and stages that make up the waste management system) so as to make it possible to subsequently analyse the importance given to each indicator through the specific weightings of each GBRS. Finally, the indicators are implemented in the case study of a building located in Colombia, in order to quantify the current level of sustainability achieved in the waste category of each system and to propose improvement actions that allow this score to be improved. In this way, it is shown that proper waste management can increase the level of sustainability of a building