Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade

Graz University of Technology | TU Graz · Institute of Structural Design

Building construction and operations are pivotal in climate mitigation efforts. While emissions from building operations can be easily reduced through renewable energy adoption and improved energy efficiency, the so-called ‘embodied’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, also called ‘embodied carbon’, associated with building material production and proc...

Purpose Bio-based insulation materials are one of the most promising solutions for reducing the environmental impacts of building envelopes. Among these materials, the environmental benefits of mycelium-based materials have merely been investigated, despite their promising technical and thermal properties. In this paper, we perform a first prospect...

Globally, interest in understanding the life cycle related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of buildings is increasing. Robust data is required for benchmarking and analysis of parameters driving resource use and whole life carbon (WLC) emissions. However, open datasets combining information on energy and material use as well as whole life carbon emi...

As highlighted in the latest IPCC report, achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions requires large-scale carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. Building materials have the capacity to store carbon dioxide through processes like carbonation of cementitious materials or the sequestration of carbon dioxide via bio-based materials. To investigat...

The perception that life cycle impacts must be considered during the design of a building is common amongst practitioners (Roberts et al., 2020). The need to rely on Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) already in the early design stages drives practitioners to search for tools and data that might support the insertion of environmental performance informat...

During extreme climate events, resilient design relies both on efficient active systems to lower the likelihood of power outages and on passive and mixed-mode strategies to help to maintain adequate comfort when they occur. As most measures to increase building resilience add embodied impacts, designers need a clearer view of the consequences that...

The building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) applied to buildings requires collecting and organizing large quantities of data over all building life cycles. To overcome specific difficulties related to the system boundaries definition and life cycle inventory stages, the literature recognizes that systematic building decomposition methods (SBDM) can be...

Wood and other bio-based building materials are often perceived as a good choice from a climate mitigation perspective. This article compares the life cycle assessment of the same multi-residential building from the perspective of 16 countries participating in the international project Annex 72 of the International Energy Agency to determine the ef...

In order to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of buildings, the literature has investigated many strategies to tackle operational emissions, which are traditionally the largest contributor to overall emissions. As a result, embodied emissions are gaining increased attention, not only due to the decrease in the relative share of operational...

When addressing concrete carbonation as a carbon mitigation option, studies leave out the effect that a temporal difference between the CO2 emissions and uptake happening throughout concrete’s life cycle have on climate change. In this study, the role played by carbonation on concrete’s carbon mitigation potential is investigated through a dynamic...

Buildings’ construction and operation are major contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the substantial reduction of GHG emissions across their full life cycle is required to enable meeting international climate targets. For effective climate change mitigation - as recent studies have shown - a special focus has to be put on lowe...

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...

In a context of digitalization and increasing quality requirements, the building sector is facing an increasing level of complexity regarding its design process. This results in a growing number of involved actors from different domains, a multitude of tasks to be completed and a higher degree of needed expertise. New buildings are also required to...

The refurbishment of the building stock is one of the key tasks for reducing the future environmental emissions in building sector. The assessment of the environmental impacts (EI) of refurbishments with LCA methodology remains a challenge. In the current practice, the refurbishment is threated as the beginning of the new lifecycle and all the impa...

Construction and operation of buildings are responsible for 37% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In contrast, the Austria’s National Inventory Report attributes a mere 10% of national emissions to buildings – including only direct operational emissions of residential and service sector buildings. This narrow definition of the buildings sec...

Buildings constructed today need to be nearly-zero energy/emission buildings (nZEB) during operation. Amongst strategies to meet today's nZEB performance requirements are passive building concepts. However, it is unclear to which degree such concepts aid buildings to achieve net-zero carbon targets. To address this research gap, we conduct a life c...

Lean and Green seeks to increase added value and reduce waste generation, while also improving environmental sustainability performance in production activities. However, no studies were found exploring the potential results by combining Lean and Green with eco-efficiency assessments in the construction sector. Therefore, this paper aimed at propos...

The synergistic effect of combining supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) as partial substitutes for clinker improves cement properties and reduces its clinker factor and, hence, its carbon footprint. Limestone-calcined clay cement (LC ³ )—a family of clinker, calcined clay, and limestone filler mixes—is studied worldwide for its properties e...

In order to reach the COP21 objectives, mitigation strategies must be identified in all economic sectors. In Austria, the construction sector represents one of the greatest sources of carbon intensive activities. Within this sector, buildings have a significant role to play. Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies strategies t...

Refurbishment is one of the most important measures for reducing the environmental impacts of the construction sector in the near future. According to the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology for buildings, the environmental impacts of refurbishment measures should be assessed within the whole life cycle of the building and reflected in separate...

As LCA gains ground as a support for decision making both in the industrial sphere and in policy making, careful interpretation of the final results becomes crucial to determine their reliability and communicate them in an accurate, complete and fair manner.

Purpose A detailed assessment of the environmental impacts of the building requires a substantial amount of data that is time- and effort-consuming. However, limitation of the system boundary to certain materials and components can provide misleading impact calculation. In order to calculate the error gap between detailed and simplified assessments...

In the face of the unfolding climate crisis, the role and importance of reducing Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector is increasing. This study investigates the global trends of GHG emissions occurring across the life cycle of buildings by systematically compiling life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and analysing more than 650 bu...

The increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has motivated specialists to develop low-carbon products incorporating bio-based materials. The impact of these materials is often evaluated through life-cycle assessment (LCA), but there is no clear consensus on how to model the biogenic carbon released or absorbed during th...

Design decisions that influence a building's environmental performance have typically focused on reducing the operational consumption. Synthetic climate data to account for climate change effects are increasingly used to predict Future building performance. Now or in the future, efficient fixtures and systems can indeed reduce operational energy, b...

Purpose The carbon intensity that accompanies concrete manufacturing has been widely investigated. However, depending on the intended use, concrete’s embedded materials’ quantities can change significantly, affecting its environmental performance. Seldom investigated, sprayed concrete’s impact differs from that of typical ready mixed concrete, whic...

Buildings are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contributors to the climate crisis. To meet climate-change mitigation needs, one must go beyond operational energy consumption and related GHG emissions of buildings and address their full life cycle. This study investigates the global trends of GHG emissions arising across the life...

Buildings are responsible for a considerable portion of the embodied and operational CO2 emitted by human activities. Some building attributes have taken on the mantle of “environmentally preferable”. Through a systematic literature review, this paper investigates if the literature on whole building Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) confirms some enviro...

Previously perceived as a rapid prototyping technique, additive manufacturing (AM) has evolved into a fully developed manufacturing process, with growing accessibility to different industrial sectors. Its technological and economic advantages are frequently documented, but AM's environmental performance is seldom investigated. Not long ago discrete...

In the upcoming decades, cement production growth is expected to exceed the increase in availability of clinker substitutes. Increased clinker replacement rates in cement and use of alternatives fuels were pointed out as the main alternatives for reducing emissions of the national cement industry, whilst increasing cement production in 2050. Conseq...

Uncertainties evaluation is increasingly gaining traction within life cycle assessment (LCA), due to its key role as environmental decision support tool. When applied at whole-building scale, the large variety of materials, subjective choices and long lifespans introduce parameter, scenario and model uncertainties throughout the life cycle. Since n...

Photovoltaic (PV) panels contribute to overall building’s loads, but generally have their impacts offset at the operational stage. For increasingly renewable electricity grids, PV’s contribution to lowering non-renewable energy becomes less significant. This paper aims at investigating the non-renewable cumulative energy demand (CEDnren) and global...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an important technique to measure environmental impacts of products and processes and its application to diagnose and optimize whole-buildings’ environmental performance has increased in the past years. However, LCA results carry uncertainties which may limit their utility as environmental decision-making support. Sin...

This paper presents a systematic design approach for an efficient use of OPC in cement-based materials in combination with inert mineral fillers. Functional properties of pastes are linked to Life Cycle Assessment. A new method combination (“Mi-S-S”, mixing-shear-resistance, spread flow, strength test) was successfully applied to identify and chara...

Over the past decades, extensive research has been carried out to reduce the environmental impacts associated with the cement and concrete production. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) enables the quantification of the environmental loads and offers a useful perspective to scientifically support such studies. In this paper, we demonstrate LCA’s contribut...

Globally, the building sector is responsible for more than 40% of energy use and it contributes approximately 30% of the global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This high contribution stimulates research and policies to reduce the operational energy use and related GHG emissions of buildings. However, the environmental impacts of buildings can exten...

Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a data-intensive methodology; therefore, experts usually focus collection efforts on a few activities, while generic data on remaining activities are taken from databases. Even though increased availability of databases has facilitated LCA takeoff, assuring data quality is fundamental to ensure meaningful resu...

Buildings are responsible for important global environmental damage. Impact mitigation goals can only be achieved through full screening encompassing the entire construction chain. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) offers a powerful and comprehensive conceptual approach as it allows for full-system analysis, comparison of different impact and performance...

This poster presents the effects of different uncertainty parameter modelling approaches when supplying inventory data for the ecoinvent database version 3, based on primary data gathered for the Brazilian 4MPa concrete block unit process.

This work discusses the implications of different uncertainty modelling approaches for supplying inventories to the ecoinvent database, based on primary data collected in 25 concrete block factories, which represent about 50% of the production volume reported by the Brazilian concrete block association.

Achieving low operational energy (OE) consumption in high heating and cooling situations typically leads to well-insulated buildings. In those cases, embodied energy (EE) can exceed the operational share. Specific literature refers mostly to heating-dominated residential buildings, with a clear focus on European, Asian, and North American countries...

The aim of this component of the SRI Project was to collect data from the local industry in order to develop representative Unit Processes (UPRs) and Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) for cement, concrete and related products for Latin America. The countries included in the project’s scope were Brazil (BR), Peru (PE) and Colombia (CO). The project was...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) provides a comprehensive framework for positioning low energy and global warming potential alternatives regarding Portland cement and concrete. Published LCA work on alkali-activated cements is, however, relatively limited. In this paper, we illustrate how LCA critically supports concrete technological studies in the sea...

Due to concrete's great potential for impact generation, many Life Cycle Assessment studies on that material stand out in specialized literature. Within the scope of a research project entitled “Advanced and Sustainable Sprayed Concrete”, this paper provides results of a systematic literature review performed to investigate sprayed concrete's and i...

Partitioning loads related to multifunctional processes, which generate more than one product or service (i.e,. function), is a controversial issue within life cycle assessment (LCA). ISO 14044:2006 suggests avoiding allocation through a hierarchic stepwise procedure, through (i) subdividing the multifunctional process into unitary sub-processes wi...

Using industrial outputs (coproducts) of multiple product (multifunctional) processes as mineral admixtures in cement making became a consolidated practice, driven by CO2 reduction oriented strategies adopted over the past decades. Brazilian cement makers now revise their strategic planning for the years to come. Life cycle assessment (LCA) allows...

The assessment of the environmental performance of buildings is now commonly using a life cycle approach, based on a growing number of databases and methods in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Recent studies have however highlighted the problems related to uncertainties in the LCA results. The aim of this study is to assess the sensitivity of construct...

O reconhecimento de determinados resíduos como co-produtos dissemina uma nova postura na modelagem do ciclo de vida dos processos que os geram. Com isso, uma questão que figura constantemente na discussão acerca de limitações metodológicas da ACV é a escolha do método de distribuição de impactos nos chamados processos multifuncionais. Tais processo...

Na maioria das avaliações ambientais nenhuma carga ambiental é associada à produção e ao uso de resíduos, uma vez que estes são considerados como uma consequência, e não o propósito final da produção em questão. Diversos tipos de resíduo, entretanto, são usados como matéria prima alternativa para outros setores industriais, com destaque para o seto...

This paper aims at showing the importance of life cycle assessment (LCA) to enlighten selection of low environmental impact mixes for breakwater structures applications. Test specimens were produced from a mix containing blast furnace slag (bfs), as coarse aggregate; granulated bfs, as fine aggregate; and Portland Cement CP III-32 RS or chemically...

The Net Zero (NZ) concept emerged some years ago to establish goals and describe success towards aggressive energy use reduction of grid-connected buildings, on an annual basis. As only the building operation is considered, the energy input to deliver the building and its components or involved in any other building lifecycle stage is not accounted...

Recycling of ground granulated blast furnace slag (ggbfs), a steelmaking process coproduct, in cement making has been typically seen as beneficial for both industry sectors involved, for the destination of an industrial waste to replace and reduce raw material intake of a second manufacturing process. Within Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology,...

Environmental impact allocation has been noted as one of the life cycle assessment's (LCA) most controversial methodological issues given that it highly influences the study's final result. This paper analyses the appropriateness of available multifunctional modeling methods to distribute environmental loads between pig iron and bfs produced in the...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a set of lifecycle-based indicators to describe material eco-efficiency of buildings normalized per unit of gross floor area (GFA), and at verifying feasibility of their calculation for building materials and components, based upon four case studies. The paper also examines the effects that discrepa...

The Net Zero concept emerged some years ago as an exciting-and challenging-reference to establish goals and describe success towards aggressive energy use reduction. The 'net zero energy/emission' definitions present variations of annual balance of a grid-connected building, referring to site or source energy, costs and emissions. As only the build...

The International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Annex 57 was established to advance on evaluation of embodied energy and GHG emissions for building construction. Its activities include recommendation of common calculation methods and disclosure of regional benchmarks. Process-based, input-output or hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) can support such calcul...

This paper assesses environmental loads of concretes made with Portland blended cements containing different proportions of ground granulated blast furnace slag (ggbs) as clinker replacement and with characteristic compressive strength ranging from 25 to 60 MPa. Impact assessment method CML 2001 v. 2.04 and Life Cycle Assessment platform SimaPro 7....

Purpose-This paper proposes to use LCA-based (embodied) energy and CO 2eq. to assess eco-efficiency of Brazilian building materials. Adequacy of using embodied CO 2 or CO 2eq. , which includes all greenhouse gases emissions, is also investigated, as literature presents studies in both terms. Methods-Cradle to gate LCAs were performed using SimaPro...

No Brasil, a produção per-capita de cimento Portland aumentou em mais de cem vezes em pouco mais de setenta anos. Somente em 2009, foram utilizadas cerca de 390 milhões de toneladas de cimento e agregados na produção de aproximadamente 150 milhões de m 3 de concreto. Devido ao expressivo consumo de recursos, a adequada compreensão e mensuração das...

Indicators such as water and energy consumption and CO 2 emissions are used across various industry sectors. A global standard for water footprint accounting has been recently published. Interpretations of embodied energy are quite unclear and vary greatly, and embodied energy databases are often incomparable. There is no general agreement on a def...

Slags recycling as construction materials and components has been promoted as environmentally wise for both sides, as the steel co-products would replace non-renewable natural material whist reducing the energy management burden of the steelmaking industry. Such approach has been supported by the understanding that slags were an unavoidable consequ...

The steel industry stands out for its steel slag's recycling practices, which provide alternatives for construction materials and components. However, some limitations arise regarding the evaluation and coherent division of the inherent ecological baggage attributable to products and co-products. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology constitu...