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Comparative whole building life cycle assessment of renovation and new construction
Abstract
Renovation of existing buildings has been identified as a major strategy for reducing the environmental impacts associated with building construction. From the perspective of embodied impacts, repurposing existing structures can reduce the amount of new materials that have to be extracted, manufactured, and installed. While the literature on energy efficiency retrofitting is relatively abundant, a smaller number of studies investigate the differences in whole-building embodied impacts of major renovations. This study presents an approach for conducting a whole-building life cycle assessment (LCA) on building renovation projects, suggests an approach for conducting comparative assessments between renovation and new construction, and demonstrates the approach on an adaptive reuse case study. The approach consists of comparing the full life cycle impacts of the existing building to the sum of the life cycle impacts of the components added in the renovation and the maintenance and replacement needs of the existing/reused components. The case study showed 53–75% reductions across 6 different environmental impact categories when the renovation was compared to a new construction scenario. The reuse of the structural and envelope components provided the majority of the reductions, as most of the renovation was of the interior components and finishes. The presented work can be used as a model for consistent LCAs on other renovation projects and to show designers, policy makers, and building owners the environmental benefits of adaptive reuse over new construction as a result of reduced need for new building materials.
... While a number of studies (e.g., Marique and Rossi 2018;Hasik et al. 2019) compare renovation and reconstruction scenarios from a life cycle perspective, most of these studies focus primarily on the operational phase of buildings, using the operational energy as the sole indicator of buildings' life cycle performance. This may create an underestimation of the overall environmental impacts associated with renovations and reconstruction scenarios. ...
... gypsum plaster and ceramic tiles) generate significant emissions per functional units, e.g., the impact of 1 m 3 of gypsum is higher than that of the same mass amount for concrete. Previous studies, including a recent research article (Hasik et al. 2019), confirmed these observations. This highlights the importance of considering alternative bio-based or recycled materials for finishing layers, which could substantially reduce environmental impacts (Le et al. 2024). ...
... However, differences in results underscore the importance of considering material selection and construction and demolition waste treatments. Proper sorting and recycling, for example, particularly for high-impact materials like concrete and metals, can significantly reduce the overall life cycle impacts of renovation projects (Hasik et al. 2019). Therefore, environmental impacts vary based on these factors, as well as how data and analysis are treated by researchers, emphasizing the need for careful consideration in building element choices during renovation or reconstruction projects. ...
Buildings are a major contributor to environmental impacts and energy consumption within the European Union. Consequently, the EU has established specific targets and policies for improved building energy and environmental performance, with the Renovation Wave being one of the most notable initiatives. However, current strategies mainly focus on energy efficiency in the operational phase of buildings, overlooking the embodied impacts from materials usage during the production, construction and retrofitting phases. Moreover, the emphasis on renovations and the neglect of alternative case entailing building demolition followed by reconstruction could present limitations in decision-making. Few studies provide comprehensive comparative assessment between renovation or reconstruction in a residential context. In the few studies which employ life cycle assessment methodology, the end-of-life stage and the potential benefits from recycling of materials are not considered in the comparison. This study compares the environmental impacts and benefits of different renovation and reconstruction scenarios of a social housing building in Ghent, Belgium, considering the entire building life cycle. The renovation scenarios differ in energy performance levels. While existing studies typically consider static average energy mix, this study performs an analysis to show the sensitivity of the results to the dynamics as well as the evolution of the electricity mix and marginal energy sources. The comparison between renovation and new construction shows a substantial decrease in environmental impact in new construction, with a reduction of up to 92% between analyzed scenarios, attributed to improved energy performance despite increased embodied impacts. Operational emissions remain a significant contributor to total impact across all scenarios, emphasizing the importance of electricity source composition. The findings underscore the effectiveness of more substantial renovation or reconstruction efforts over minimal adaptations, especially in meeting Belgium's environmental targets.
Graphical abstract
... The comparison between renovation and new construction was based on the scope (shown in Figure 3) developed by Hasik, Vaclav, et al. [11]. This scope was created by selectively combining relevant stages for both the new construction and renovation options. ...
... In developed countries, four studies have included embodied carbon emissions as an indicator in the renovation of industrial heritage/sites. In current literature, several researchers have conducted life cycle assessments, focusing on embodied carbon, to analyse the environmental impact of the renovation of industrial heritage to support carbon reduction or offsetting of the project [11,[53][54][55]. In addition, Watson conducted an embodied carbon assessment using the embodied energy calculator for three heritage industrial renovation projects across two regions to judge the environmental value of building reuse [56]. ...
... In part one, for renovations of industrial buildings/sites, an overview of results on embodied carbon emission for renovations of industrial buildings with general information is shown in Table 1. Hasik, et al. conducted a life cycle assessment on a listed American beer bottling plant renovation and reported that the embodied carbon value is 554 kg CO2e/m2 (based on the reported data) throughout the building's lifetime [11]. Opher, et al. carried out a life cycle assessment on a Canadian listed brickworks renovation and reported that the embodied carbon value is 255 kg CO2e/m2 throughout the building's lifetime [53]. ...
Industrial buildings play vital roles in a society, from shaping the economic, technological, cultural, and social fabric of society, to contributing to its growth, development, and resilience. Hence often at the end of their lifespans, they are “preserved” for their historical value through renovation. In consideration for renovation, often included are their historical significance, structural integrity, adaptive reuse, social sustainability, financial viability and environmental impacts. Among them, the carbon emissions associated with a project are becoming increasingly a factor when a historical building is to be sensitively renovated so that it can continue to contribute to local sustainability. However, embodied carbon is often shadowed by operational carbon and overlooked in the development of renovation options. This paper aims to argue for the need to include embodied carbon in the consideration and for guidelines for doing so in a renovation process. The argument is through a systematic review of current practices in the renovations of industrial heritage buildings between selected presentative countries, the developing ones and developed ones, on the belief that the former could learn valuable lessons from the latter who has gone through the process already. The argument also shows the difference in policy between different countries and articulates how the inclusion of this might support environmental targets in developing countries. Based on quantitative comparison, the review explains why embodied carbon (EC) is missing in developing countries. The study estimates the proportion and value of EC with the total life cycle in renovations of industrial buildings to support the argument. Above all, a calculation using a standard LCA tool (ISO14040 & 14044) applied to four successful examples and quantitative comparison highlights the benefits of including embodied carbon in renovations of industrial buildings and the carbon savings in developing countries and further supports the argument.
... Marique and Rossi [54] CML-IA. Hasik et al. [74] TRACI. Shirazi and Ashuri [37] TRACI. ...
... Some reviewed studies (n = 15) provided flowcharts of the system analyzed, making the assessment more understandable for the reader. Hasik et al. [74] and Ghose et al. [73] provide vivid flowcharts that make it easy to understand where the study used primary and secondary data. The improved level of detail will aid future readers in understanding the sourcing and limits of the data used. ...
... al.[74]: 'The functional unit for the comparison is 1 building providing the work and support space (about 5500 m 2 ) for the architectural firm consisting of approximately 125 employees for 60 al.[27]: '1 megajoule (MJ) of energy carrier q, 1 square meter (m 2 ) of new or renovated HFA of type T and energy level r, and 1 m 2 of HFA being demolished' (50 and 100 years). A1-5, B5-6, C1-C4.Wrålsen et al.[35]: 'upgrading of one apartment building built in 1965 to a low energy class 1 in energy use' et al.[28]:'housing 80 adults in a collective apartment building of 1257 m 2 living area, maintaining the architectural configuration of a 60 years old existing building, ensuring at least the fulfillment of the current energy demand regulation, during the lifespan of the building. ...
... The field of sustainable building design and construction has experienced a proliferation of rating systems, methodologies, and tools to assess and promote sustainability in the built environment. This has led researchers to become interested in comparative studies to understand the strengths, weaknesses, similarities, and differences among these systems [3,8,9,19,[45][46][47]. ...
... Furthermore, comparative research reveals challenges and opportunities in existing systems and tools, uncovering inconsistencies, gaps, or biases that need addressing. Alternatively, it may identify innovative practices, emerging trends, and potential synergies to enhance sustainability assessments [3,9,45]. ...
... The analysis of publications reveals that building life cycle assessment encompasses distinct phases: materials extraction and manufacturing, construction, operation, renovation and refurbishment, and demolition and end-of-life. Environmental impact categories such as global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and more are evaluated to quantify the wide-ranging effects that buildings can have on the environment [10,29,32,37,45,48,49]. ...
The interior design sector within the construction industry plays a pivotal role in economic development and significantly contributes to environmental degradation. Unlike broader architectural assessments that emphasize structural and external elements, this study highlights the unique challenges and opportunities within interior design. By examining trends and gaps in sustainable interior design criteria from 2013 to 2023, the research provides a foundation for developing specific actionable standards for this often-overlooked sector. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist guided the review process. Data were collected from recognized indexing databases using rigorous inclusion criteria. Selected studies were analyzed based on a mixed-methods approach. The study aims to highlight key trends and synthesize research themes. This systematic review addresses the critical gap in the literature regarding the sustainability of interior design. The findings reveal a lack of comprehensive criteria and tailored guidelines for assessing interior design sustainability, which hinders the effective implementation of sustainable practices. This review underscores the necessity of micro-scale analysis in interior design, providing new insights into sustainable practices and contributing to the broader discourse on sustainable architecture. The study proposes a guideline as a foundation for developing specific actionable standards for assessing sustainability in interior design.
... The increasing focus on sustainability, however, raises the question of how the environmental impact of renovation relates to the environmental impact of reconstruction. In recent years, the environmental evaluation of renovation compared to reconstruction has been increasingly examined [3][4][5][6][7]. Although in many studies renovation is preferred over reconstruction from an environmental point of view [3][4], opposite conclusions can be found as well [5]. ...
... In recent years, the environmental evaluation of renovation compared to reconstruction has been increasingly examined [3][4][5][6][7]. Although in many studies renovation is preferred over reconstruction from an environmental point of view [3][4], opposite conclusions can be found as well [5]. In a study of Hasik et al. [3], on the one hand, the renovation of an office building resulted in a 53-75% environmental impact reduction compared to the reconstruction of the building. ...
... Although in many studies renovation is preferred over reconstruction from an environmental point of view [3][4], opposite conclusions can be found as well [5]. In a study of Hasik et al. [3], on the one hand, the renovation of an office building resulted in a 53-75% environmental impact reduction compared to the reconstruction of the building. On the other hand, Gaspar & Santos [4] reported a smaller impact difference between the renovation and reconstruction of a 40-year old detached single-family dwelling in Portugal; renovating the dwelling resulted in a 17% lower environmental impact in comparison with reconstruction. ...
The environmental trade-off between renovation (i.e. application of energy conservation measures) and
reconstruction (i.e. demolition followed by new build) is an emerging topic under study. Although in many studies
renovation is preferred over reconstruction from an environmental viewpoint, opposite conclusions can be found as well.
The reason behind these ambiguous conclusions is often explained by the difference in energy performance achieved
between the renovation and reconstruction scenario. However, the question of to what extent methodological choices
influence the trade-off between both scenarios is rarely asked. The environmental impact of a building is commonly
examined by means of life cycle assessment (LCA). Despite the fact that several standards with regard to LCAs do exist,
there are no specific guidelines when buildings with a different (remaining) service life are compared, or when an existing
building is the starting point of the assessment, as the standards are mostly tailored for new buildings. Consequently,
different methodological approaches can be found in literature to (1) determine the reference study period and (2) allocate
environmental impacts. This paper therefore examines the effect of several approaches in terms of both aspects on the
trade-off between renovation and reconstruction. First, existing approaches are gathered from literature after which they
are applied to a renovation and reconstruction case study with an identical geometry, energy performance, and HVAC
installation. For the environmental evaluation, an LCA is performed following a cradle-to-grave approach. The
environmental impact of the operational energy use and HVAC installation is however excluded since it is considered equal
for both cases. The results show considerable variations in the trade-off between renovation and reconstruction.
Establishing a robust and well-defined methodological LCA framework that allows for a consistent comparison of
renovation and reconstruction, is a key challenge to determine how to guide and support the choice between both scenarios.
... As buildings become more energy-efficient, this share will continue to increase. To avoid burden shifting, life cycle assessment (LCA) is commonly used to quantify the environmental impact of a building over its full life cycle [4][5][6][7][8]. ...
... On the other hand, the comparison of the environmental impact of renovation and reconstruction is a more recent topic that has been studied [6][7][8]. Based on Gaspar and Santos [6] and Hasik et al. [7], the environmental impact of renovation is lower than reconstruction, respectively 53-75% and 17%. If renovation leads to certain lower energy savings and the remaining service life is 30 years shorter than that of the reconstruction case, Meijer and Kara [8] found opposite conclusions. ...
... On the other hand, the comparison of the environmental impact of renovation and reconstruction is a more recent topic that has been studied [6][7][8]. Based on Gaspar and Santos [6] and Hasik et al. [7], the environmental impact of renovation is lower than reconstruction, respectively 53-75% and 17%. If renovation leads to certain lower energy savings and the remaining service life is 30 years shorter than that of the reconstruction case, Meijer and Kara [8] found opposite conclusions. ...
A sustainable transition of the existing dwelling stock towards carbon neutrality is a key element in tackling the climate crisis. To facilitate this transition, one-step deep renovation, demolition followed by new build (i.e., reconstruction) and step-by-step renovation are possible pathways. The choice between these three pathways will depend on many aspects, but how does their environmental impact relate? Lowering the operational energy use is a first essential step, but the environmental impact related to the material use can become equally or even more important in case of low-energy buildings. Today, a systematic comparison of these three pathways from an environmental life cycle perspective is missing in the state-of-the-art. Hence, this paper compares the environmental impact of one-step deep renovation, reconstruction and step-by-step renovation with the conservation of an uninsulated single-family dwelling. The environmental impact is calculated by means of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) over a 60-year study period following a cradle-to-grave approach. For each pathway, identical strategies for the different building envelope components and technical installations are assumed. For step-by-step renovation, six steps in two sequences are considered, corresponding to the highest and lowest resulting environmental impact. The results show that one-step deep renovation has the lowest environmental impact, followed by reconstruction. Their environmental impact is respectively 73% and 68.5% lower than conservation. Step-by-step renovation has a higher impact than both one-step deep renovation (+26% to +73%) and reconstruction (+7% to +48%), but the impact is still 53% to 66% lower than conservation, depending on the sequence of the measures.
... Besides the statistical evaluation of the available sources by Schwartz et al., there are a number of case studies that have dealt with the question of the environmental impacts of demolition and new construction or the continued use of a building on the basis of an exemplary building [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. ...
... When examining the case studies, the methodological approaches for the comparison of demolition and new construction or continued use of buildings differ greatly, which influences the results and hinders comparability. While some studies only consider embodied environmental impacts [21][22][23][24][25], others also include the operation of the building in their considerations [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. ...
... A closer examination of the existing case studies comparing refurbishment measures with demolition and new construction supports the findings of Vilches et al. Hasik et al. have developed a methodology for comparing both scenarios based on a literature review [24]. Their method considers the entire life cycle of the newly installed materials as well as the use phase of the reused materials. ...
One of the main objectives facing climate protection targets is how to deal with the existing building stock. Refurbishment measures are essential to ensure sustainable urban transformation. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) enable refurbishment measures to be evaluated holistically at the environmental level. However, there is still no sufficient methodological basis for the uniform evaluation. This present paper proposes a new perspective for comparing the continuing use with refurbishment as well as the demolition and new construction of a building. Thus, two new indicators are presented and elaborated regarding refurbishment measures: sustained emissions and the avoidance potential. To verify and validate the newly developed methodology, we implement it as part of this case study. We compare the environmental impact of a building’s continuing use with refurbishment measures as well as demolition and a replacement building with functional equivalence. The results indicate the environmental benefits of refurbishment measures compared to other approaches towards existing buildings. Although new buildings typically possess a superior energy standard, nevertheless, irrespective of the major impact of operational energy, refurbishment measures appear to be the most viable option for dealing with existing buildings over their life cycle.
... Another issue emerges when the alternatives to be compared are not only unbuilt sites but existing buildings. [5] suggests several ways to name the location of a new facility within existing buildings, changing sometimes the current function, i.e. renovation, retrofit, and adaptive reuse, and promoting its potential to reduce the environmental impact generated by the construction industry. Pursuing sustainability in the building construction sector, considering the triple bottom line, is challenging but urgent given its effect on CO 2 emission, including moreover the extraction, and installation of new materials [5][6][7]. ...
... [5] suggests several ways to name the location of a new facility within existing buildings, changing sometimes the current function, i.e. renovation, retrofit, and adaptive reuse, and promoting its potential to reduce the environmental impact generated by the construction industry. Pursuing sustainability in the building construction sector, considering the triple bottom line, is challenging but urgent given its effect on CO 2 emission, including moreover the extraction, and installation of new materials [5][6][7]. Moreover, another issue emerges when the built environment is represented by historical assets with constraints. ...
... Research by Galimshina [30] has concluded that the heating system is the most crucial parameter for renovation. Another study by Bilec [31] conducted a whole-building LCA for a renovation project and found that the majority of renovation impacts were due to non-structural components. ...
... The largest share of total greenhouse gas emissions across all renovation alternatives arises from operational energy, especially district heating, which complies with findings in other studies [30,31,66]. The minimum ratio of GHG emissions from operational energy to the total GHG emissions is 50%, which is in the building renovated with an exhaust air heat pump (EAHP), and a higher ratio of 83% in the building renovated with exhaust ventilation (EV). ...
The European Union (EU) has implemented several policies to enhance energy efficiency. Among these policies is the objective of achieving energy-efficient renovations in at least 3% of EU buildings annually. The primary aim of this study was to offer a precise environmental comparison among four similar district-heated multifamily buildings that have undergone identical energy efficiency measures. The key distinguishing factor among them lies in the HVAC systems installed. The chosen systems were as follows: (1) exhaust ventilation with air pressure control; (2) mechanical ventilation with heat recovery; (3) exhaust ventilation with an exhaust air heat pump; and (4) exhaust ventilation with an exhaust air heat pump with a Photovoltaic (PV) panel. This study involved a life cycle assessment that relied on actual material data from the housing company and energy consumption measurements. This study covered a period of 50 years for thorough analysis. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to account for various future scenarios of energy production. The findings revealed that the building with an exhaust air heat pump exhibited the lowest greenhouse gas emissions and the shortest carbon payback period (GBPT), needing only around 7 years. In contrast, the building with exhaust ventilation without heat recovery showed the highest emissions and the longest carbon payback period (GBPT), requiring approximately 11 years. Notably, the results were significantly influenced by future scenarios of energy production, emphasizing the crucial role of emission factors in determining the environmental performance of distinct renovation scenarios.
... However, the vast majority supported renovation over demolition and new construction. The results of the present study's investigation are similar to those of [21][22][23][24] who found that buildings' renovation or rehabilitation reduce environmental impacts associated with building components' lifecycle. Contrary to popular belief, new construction is heavily reliant on the production of carbon-intensive structural materials such as concrete, steel, and envelope materials [22] , making it the most environmentally damaging option. ...
... The results of the present study's investigation are similar to those of [21][22][23][24] who found that buildings' renovation or rehabilitation reduce environmental impacts associated with building components' lifecycle. Contrary to popular belief, new construction is heavily reliant on the production of carbon-intensive structural materials such as concrete, steel, and envelope materials [22] , making it the most environmentally damaging option. This is from an environmental perspective. ...
Buildings are a huge carbon emitter. Efforts are being made to cut both embodied and operational carbon emissions to reduce the impact on the built environment. This study aims to compare the Life Cycle Carbon Footprint (LCCF) and LCC of two alternatives: refurbishment and radical replacement of an existing community centre building in Liverpool to identify options that could achieve significant CO2 emission reductions in an economically viable way. The calculation methods are standardised by the UK's RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) to overcome the limitations of LCAs undertaken in previous research. This refers to the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) database from which embodied calculation factors were extracted to get the greenhouse gases. While the operational emissions data were obtained from a thermal simulation through IES software. The results of this study showed that the refurbishment scenario is the best option since it emits 50% less GHG and reaches 64% lower costs compared to the new build case throughout the building’s life cycle. Such that the LCCF of the refurbishment scenario was 215,084.36 kgCO2e/m2 and its LCC £ 88,135.32, while the replacement scenario achieved 429,397.44 kgCO2e/m2 and £ 246,213.59. It can be deducted that to reach significant reductions in carbon emissions rates with a lower economic impact, refurbishment is preferable to demolition and new construction, even if the building shows several damages and defects, which suggests that the UK government should incentivise and encourage re-use for faster environmental rehabilitation.
... This approach is known as adaptive reuse, and it has several advantages, including reducing the demand for new construction, preserving cultural heritage, and reducing waste. Adaptive reuse can also lead to economic benefits, such as lower construction costs and increased property values (Hasik et al., 2019). Reusing existing structures without building anything new can be even more sustainable, as it avoids the additional energy and material resources required for refurbishment. ...
As the consequences of climate change become increasingly apparent, it is imperative to enhance the efficiency and control of the construction sector to adapt and mitigate the crisis. This essay examines the complex relationship between informal settlements and sustainable urban development. It emphasizes the significance of adopting a human-centered approach to comprehend and tackle the challenges encountered by these settlements. Fur- thermore, it acknowledges the interconnectivity of urban informality, human nature, and archi- tecture, underscoring the need to observe. The concept of Natural Cities, which evolved from informal settlements, challenges the traditional divide between society and nature by high- lighting their interdependence and coexistence within urban spaces. Sustainable cities embrace this interdependence by following the principles of sustainability and environmental steward- ship, striving to strike a balance between the needs of people and the requirements of the natural world. The article addresses the challenges of abandoned or stalled construction projects in Natural Cities, which can be overcome with the right guidelines and boosts, by presenting a theoretical analysis and suggesting several development approaches for unfinished buildings in these settlements. These practices are based on the principles of "build nothing, less, cleaver, and efficiently" by the World Green Building Council. The article evaluates the approaches in terms of costs, greenhouse gas emissions, and their alignment with the UN's sustainable development goals. Public investments and services can be encouraged in these structures to incentivize sustainable development, ultimately benefiting the residents of informal settlements who are most affected by these challenges. Empowering and including the residents in the planning and decision-making processes is crucial for success. A human-centered approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of urban informality, human nature, and architecture is pivotal in realizing sustainable urban development in informal settlements. By considering the symbiotic relationship between urban and natural elements and involving the community in decision-making processes, we can foster inclusive and resilient natural cities that harmonize with their surroundings and enhance the well-being of their residents.
... The construction industry has been widely criticised for many problems, such as severe waste caused by the inefficient use of resources, the high level of environmental pollution and the never-ending number of accidents (Hasik et al., 2019;Nnaji et al., 2021). As a result, proactive measures are being implemented to address these problems and one common approach is through maturity models (Alankarage et al., 2022). ...
Maturity models have become one of the most used organisational maturity assessment tools in the construction industry. However, bibliometric and visual analysis for this field is still scarce. This study used CiteSpace to analyse 278 articles on maturity models employed in the construction industry from 2000 to 2022 in the Web of Science (WoS) core database. The categories in the WoS database divided the filtered articles into eight categories, which could be roughly divided into three fields: (1) Construction and Engineering, (2) Green Sustainability and Environment, and (3) Integrated Management. The keyword cooccurrence analysis based on frequency, centrality and burst strength revealed that “Building information modelling (BIM)”, “System” and “Impact” were relatively significant terms. This finding indicated that maturity models are a systematic assessment tool often used in the BIM domain. The analysis of the evolution of keywords also revealed that maturity-related research could be divided into five stages and that the application of maturity models at each stage focused on different areas within the construction industry. The analyses of the current review direct future research to focus more on the integration of green sustainability with other topics, explore new technologies, investigate the applicability of maturity theories and validation studies and conduct more action-oriented guided research. The results of this study guide researchers to utilise maturity models in the effort to systematically understand current research efforts and future trends of the tool in the construction industry, as well as provide references for managers of building construction companies and government personnel who develop policies for the construction industry.
... Using an example of Dutch residential buildings, Berg and Fuglseth (2018) showed the usefulness of retrofitting in reducing the environmental impact on buildings by 60%. Given the foregone discussion, it becomes clear, as acknowledged by Hasik et al. (2019), that retrofitting can be one of the ways to produce innovation in construction. Retrofitting buildings also includes exploring some of the privileges of having water and waste efficiency measures in a building (Dixon et al., 2014). ...
Purpose
In the era of climate change, the need to ensure that buildings are energy efficient cannot be overemphasised. Studies have shown that building retrofitting can improve energy efficiency (EE) and sustainability. There may be hindrances to retrofitting for energy efficiency. Extant literature and policy documents on Zimbabwe suggest a better framework to help stakeholders manage their existing buildings by addressing challenges and policy inconsistencies. This study appraises and critically discusses the challenges facing retrofitting Zimbabwe’s buildings for energy efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted a quantitative research design using a questionnaire survey distributed to the respondents knowledgeable in building retrofitting and energy efficiency in Zimbabwe. The data were analysed through various statistical approaches (descriptive and inferential). The inferential tests include the Shapiro–Wilk test, Kruskal–Wallis H -test, exploratory factor analysis and heterotrait-monotrait ratio analysis to develop the structural equation model that validated the challenges for retrofitting buildings.
Findings
The results revealed the challenges of retrofitting buildings for EE in Zimbabwe, and a structural equation model was developed that clustered the key challenges into three main groups. This includes inadequate finance to invest in energy, outdated building by-laws and the unavailability of raw materials to achieve energy efficiency.
Originality/value
By appraising the challenges facing retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency in Zimbabwe, this study provides insights into the contextual factors that can enhance energy efficiency and sustainability in other developing countries. The study’s practical implications will positively impact the Green Building Council and other stakeholders interested in improving energy efficiency in the built environment.
... • Sustainable Design Solutions: Engineers are leveraging BIM-LCA-AHP techniques to develop computerized models that enhance construction sustainability. Tushar and Bhuiyan found that integrating Revit with FirstRate5 and Tally tools resulted in more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient design solutions, significantly reducing the carbon footprint and energy consumption of buildings [99]. ...
The construction industry, characterized by high energy use and carbon emissions, necessitates a thorough and accurate life cycle assessment (LCA). This review investigates how building information modeling (BIM) software can streamline the LCA process to improve both efficiency and precision. Although BIM has considerable potential, challenges remain, such as issues with software interoperability and a lack of standardized options for BIM-integrated LCA tools. The review also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various BIM software, LCA tools, and energy consumption tools, and highlights case studies of BIM-LCA integration. It provides a critical analysis of methods and techniques for BIM-LCA integration and data exchange, including the import of bills of quantities, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), the use of BIM viewers, direct LCA calculations with BIM plugins, and calculations using LCA plugins. The study concludes with future outlooks, aiming to direct the development of improved LCA tools that offer better integration with BIM software, which is crucial for advancing sustainable construction practices.
... Opting for durable and repeated minor interventions may result in reduced embodied carbon emissions throughout the whole building's life and may offer a favorable opportunity to maximize carbon benefits (Bui et al., 2022), as it necessitates fewer subsequent interventions (Kayan, 2013). More than 50 % environmental impact reductions can be expected refurbishing rather than constructing a new building (Hasik et al., 2019). In addition, (Fufa et al., 2021) has highlighted that the retrofit and/or refurbishment of existing buildings with the simultaneous installation of insulation materials and use of RES is more beneficial and effective in achieving short-and mid-term environmental goals than constructing new buildings with similar features, as also demonstrated by (Endo & Takamura, 2021;Jerome et al., 2021;Serrano et al., 2022) (Gravagnuolo et al., 2020), thus improving environmental sustainability. ...
Reducing the energy demand in the building sector appears to be the most important aspect to make them energy efficient. Opting for durable minor interventions results in further reduction of embodied carbon. This paper proposes a method which combines the evaluation of the environmental impact of interventions together with the visual preservation of buildings. A new indicator, the Embodied Impact of Intervention (EII), was defined to evaluate the overall environmental impact considering three indicators within the Life Cycle Assessment: Global Warning Potential (GWP), Primary Energy Non-Renewable (PE-NRe), and net-Fresh Water (FW) offering the stakeholders a holistic view for selecting the most sustainable solutions for interventions in existing buildings. The methodology has been tested to a benchmark, (i.e., masonry wall components), considering low, medium, and high visual impact scenarios, and a lifespan of 100 years. A direct proportionality is shown between GWP and PE-NRe, whereas FW does not have a singular relationship with the other indicators as it is mainly influenced by the material production. High GWP values occur in scenarios in which Nature Based Solutions (236.82 kgCO2eq) and Building-Integrated Photovoltaic panels are implemented (798.09 kgCO2eq), being ≈2.7 and ≈9 higher than the same High Visual Impact scenarios without mitigation solutions. It was found that the visual impact of the interventions may not align with the corresponding EII, resulting in dichotomous scenarios with medium visual impact and low EII, or high visual impact and medium EII. In Low-Income Countries, using recycled materials can minimize the production phase, reducing EII, energy efficiency, energy usage and waste, to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goal in the long-term.
... Since renovation requires less material than new construction, renovation represents a better option to reduce construction sector emissions. For example, Hasik et al. (2019) compared an adaptive reuse project with new construction in a case study through a lifecycle assessment (LCA) analysis focused on construction materials, therefore excluding installation, use, demolition, and operational energy (A5, B1, B6, B7, and C1, based on LCA categorization). Results show how renovation allows to avoid between 53 and 75% of the impact from new construction on six different impact categories, including global warming potential (GWP). ...
In Europe, buildings account for 40% of the energy consumption and produce 36% of CO 2 emissions. Renovation could be a great tool to decarbonize the building stock since it allows for a decrease in the operational energy required for buildings and is less material-consuming than new construction. Further benefits are brought by the usage of bio-based insulation materials that can drastically reduce embodied emissions and transform structures into factual carbon sinks. This study focuses on a particular kind of biogenic material, mycelium-wood composites, consisting of organic matter bound by the root structure of fungal organisms. This innovative insulation material was compared with traditional ones for the renovation of the building stock, with a focus on vertical components like walls in the Helsinki metropolitan area. To characterize mycelium-wood composites, density and carbon content information were gathered from the samples realized in the Politecnico di Milano MaBa.SAPERLab, while the production processes were included in a SimaPro model to obtain the GWP value. Different scenarios were then defined by two variables: the renovation rate of the building stock and the market penetration of mycelium-wood composites. For each scenario, the overall GWP and CO 2 stored values were calculated. Results show the great potential of the innovative material that grants carbon storage in the building stock that could even surpass the amount stored in the 32,500 ha of forest in the area. However, this possibility is heavily influenced by factors independent of the type of insulation used that should be further investigated.
... Renovating existing structures serves as a sustainable alternative, minimizing the demand for new materials and extending the life cycle of built environments [44]. This approach aligns with the principles outlined by Kim [38] and reflects a commitment to resource efficiency and environmental responsibility. ...
... While there has been significant research on the renovation of old buildings, there is a notable gap in the literature regarding the reconstruction of these buildings. Many studies have focused on energy-efficient upgrades (Johansson & Wahlgren, 2017;Malmgren et al., 2016;Malmgren & Mjörnell, 2015), materials (Hasik et al., 2019;Jalil et al., 2020), and other technological factors related to the renovation of old buildings (Amoruso et al., 2018;Jalil et al., 2020;Joblot et al., 2017), but less attention has been paid to the challenges and opportunities involved in reconstructing them. In contrast to prior research that has primarily focused on isolated aspects of reconstructing old residential buildings (Radziszewska-Zielina et al., 2017;Sundling & Szentes, 2021;Yoon & Yu, 2019), this study represents a significant advancement by presenting a comprehensive and holistic framework. ...
The deterioration of residential buildings presents challenges to the sustainable development of urban areas, necessitating their reconstruction. Notwithstanding the fundamental importance of reconstructing old residential buildings, their execution is hindered by numerous challenges, resulting in significant time consumption and difficulties. This study aims to establish a model that can be employed to assess the barriers to reconstructing old residential buildings. The proposed model comprises four sustainable groups, including environmental, social, economic, and technical barriers. While the economic barrier showed the highest coefficient in the barrier index equation, the environmental barrier exhibited the lowest coefficient. The suggested model will provide practitioners with a means to quantify the barriers that impede the sustainable development of old residential building reconstruction projects before implementation. Furthermore, the study's outcomes will guide investors in identifying key focus areas to enhance sustainable development through the reconstruction of old residential buildings.
... The assessment of natural hazard impacts and seismic excitations on the structural integrity of buildings has become a popular approach nowadays for investigating resilience and the relationship between structures and soil [15]. Investigations into the effect of soil-structure interactions (SSIs) can offer valuable technical support for improving conventional seismic design practices and methods for evaluating urban earthquake damage [16]. ...
Approximately 20,000 people are killed annually on average by building and infrastructure collapses and failures caused by seismic activities. In earlier times, seismic design codes and specifications set minimal requirements for life safety performance levels. Earthquakes can be thought of as recurring events in seismically active areas, with severity states ranging from serviceability to ultimate levels. Buildings designed in accordance with site-specific response spectra, which take into account soil properties based on ground motion amplification data, are better at withstanding such forces and serving their design purposes. This study aims to investigate the site response of reinforced and masonry buildings, considering the effect of soil properties based on the amplification of ground motion data, and to compare the life cycle assessment of the buildings under consideration based on the design and the site-specific response spectrum. In terms of soil properties and site-specific response spectra, STRATA is used to determine the site-specific response for the considered locations for a return period of 475 years for 100 realizations based on the randomization of site properties. For structural analysis, AxisVM software, which is a compatible finite element analysis, is used for building design and analysis, generating comparative results based on the design- and site-specific spectra. To determine and identify potential failures in the model, response spectra were applied to understand the difference in horizontal deflection in two different instances (for elastic design- and site-specific spectra). After building design and analysis is performed, a life cycle analysis in terms of environmental impact assesments using OpenLCA and IdematLightLCA is done. This is done to ascertain the additional expenses in terms of ecocosts and carbon footprints on some failed elements in the structure which are required to make the buildings more resilient when the site-specific response spectrum is applied and to compare the potential economic losses that may occur based on ecological costs. The study presents a comprehensive investigation into the seismic response of masonry and reinforced concrete buildings in Győr, Hungary, incorporating advanced geophysical techniques like multichannel surface wave (MASW) and structural analysis software, AxisVM. Additionally, tailored retrofitting strategies are explored to enhance structural resilience in seismic-prone regions. Significant ground amplifications in soil properties across different profiles are revealed, emphasizing the effectiveness of these strategies in reducing structural deflection and improving resilience. Highlights of the results are observed where the site-specific response spectra are higher than the EC8 design response spectrum. Furthermore, the research underscores the substantial environmental impact, considering both ecocosts and CO2 emissions associated with retrofitting measures, highlighting the importance of sustainable structural interventions in mitigating seismic risks.
... Implementing (direct) reuse is expected to yield environmental benefits by extending the building's lifespan, ultimately preventing premature demolition. It is widely recognized that refurbishment (Hasik et al., 2019;Weiler et al., 2017), selective demolition (Akbarnezhad et al., 2014), or upgrading existing buildings (Bragadin et al., 2023) result in more significant environmental benefits compared to demolition and reconstruction. However, these comparisons often lack a holistic approach to understanding the environmental performance of reusing building components across multiple life/use cycles. ...
... For example, the integrated approach applied to a 2-story building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, reduced the environmental impact of the TRACI 2.1 category by 53-75% compared to traditional environmental calculation methods. The new construction solution implemented allowed the structure and envelope to be recycled, demonstrating economic benefits and environmental sustainability [98]. Engineers may develop computerized models to increase the sustainability of construction through assessments based on sustainable concrete structures by using the BIM-LCA-AHP technique, as demonstrated by Abdelaal, Seif [103] Tushar, Bhuiyan [99] verified that Revit integration of FirstRate5 energy tools and Tally tools could provide environmentally friendly, energyefficient design solutions that provide a significant contribution to reducing the carbon footprint and energy consumption of a house. ...
In the high-energy, high-carbon landscape of the construction industry, a detailed and precise life cycle assessment (LCA) is essential. This review examines the role of building information modeling (BIM) software in streamlining the LCA process to enhance efficiency and accuracy. Despite its potential, challenges such as software interoperability and compatibility persist, with no unified standard for choosing BIM-integrated LCA software. Besides, the review explores the capabilities and limitations of various BIM software, LCA tools, and energy consumption tools, and presents characteristics of BIM-LCA integration cases. It critically discusses BIM-LCA integration methods and data exchange techniques, including bill of quantities import, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) import, BIM viewer usage, direct LCA calculations with BIM plugins, and LCA plugin calculations. Finally, concluding with future perspectives, the study aims to guide the development of advanced LCA tools for better integration with BIM software, addressing a vital need in sustainable construction practices.
... Renovation LCA stage and boundary diagram, Hasik et al.[5]. ...
In this study, we address the challenge of efficiently handling the maintenance and remodeling of buildings constructed post-1960s, lacking architectural drawings. The conventional approach involves manual measurements and data recording, followed by digital drawing creation. However, we leverage Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to develop a deep learning-based automatic object classification system using point cloud data. We employ the FCAF3D network with multiscale cells, optimizing its configuration for classifying building components such as walls, floors, roofs, and other objects. While classifying walls, floors, and roofs using bounding boxes led to some boundary-related errors, the model performed well for objects with distinct shapes. Our approach emphasizes efficiency in the remodeling process rather than precise numerical calculations, reducing labor and improving architectural planning quality. While our dataset labeling strategy involved bounding boxes with limitations in numerical precision, future research could explore polygon-based labeling, minimizing loss of space and potentially yielding more meaningful results in classification. In summary, our technology aligns with the initial research objectives, and further investigations could enhance the methodology for even more accurate building object classification.
... Previous studies have indicated the significance of these emissions. For example, the contribution from fitting out offices has been shown to contribute 12-15 % of the initial embodied impacts [31], and in a larger renovation case study, Hasik et al. [32] found that finishes contributed to 40 % of GHGe, mostly from new access floors inside the building. However, the lack of knowledge about the life-cycle impacts of energy-efficiency measures versus measures for these other functions in real-life renovations constitutes a research gap for informed decision-and policy-making. ...
... From these considerations, the analysis boundaries are the element that most significantly influences the final results, particularly regarding placing existing building burden in energy renovation scenarios [13]. Indeed, including the existing buildings' end-of-life stage in evaluations of energy refurbishment interventions significantly penalises the assessment results, preventing a proper measurement [14]. These issues are also present for evaluation regarding the demolition and reconstruction process, especially when assessing design choices related to the circular economy affecting the subsequent life cycle [15]. ...
The Italian residential building stock consists of 12.2 million buildings, with 7.2 constructed post-World War II during the economic boom. These structures were designed without specific regulations for seismic safety, fire resistance, and energy efficiency, and today lies the current state of strong obsolescence. Therefore, energy refurbishment may not always be the best cost/benefit solution due to these intrinsic issues. Consequently, the transition to construction systems based on circular economy principles brings new opportunities and becomes key to proposing replacement interventions for this heritage. This paper presents a comparative GIS-based bottom-up approach to evaluate the lifecycle impact of residential building blocks, encompassing energy, environmental, and economic aspects. Two tools are introduced: one for measuring energy consumption and the other for quantifying the quantities of materials stored in buildings. This methodology permits comparing the new circular buildings and different refurbishment scenarios to identify the most suitable solution from an environmental impact and financial point of view. The application of a case study, a residential urban block in Bologna, built in 1945–1965, highlights how the demolition and reconstruction scenario based on circular economy principles presents the lowest environmental impacts and is economically competitive compared to standard deep renovation techniques.
... An analysis by Sanchez et al. (2019) found a 35%-38% decrease in primary energy demand, GWP, and water consumption, and 70% savings in construction costs for the adaptive reuse (referring to renovation) of a courthouse building compared to a new courthouse construction in Ontario, Canada. Hasik et al. (2019) applied LCA to compare adaptive reuse of a historical beer bottling/warehouse facility into an equivalent-size office building in Philadelphia, U.S., and determined that reusing the existing facility helped to avoid 75% of GHG emissions compared to new construction. Finally, Feng et al. (2020) evaluated the life-cycle GHG emissions of six different renovation and reconstruction (building a new building) scenarios using a building information modeling (BIM)-LCA combined approach for single-family housing in Vancouver, Canada. ...
This study examines the potential strategies for reducing embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions through adaptive reuse of non-residential buildings for residential purposes, as compared to new construction of apartment buildings. Such an approach can address housing crises in urban areas with an abundance of underutilized non-residential buildings, promoting sustainable housing growth. A comprehensive assessment of repurposing in California reveals approximately 510 million m² of floor space across 230,000 non-residential buildings in the current building stock. The potential reduction in embodied energy and CO2eq emissions ranges from 0.14 to 1.4 billion GJ and 5.0–70 million metric tons for the state, respectively, contingent upon the percentage of repurposed floor space (10–100%) and adaptive reuse scenario (retaining structural components and façade or solely the structure). A repurposed building avoids about 56% of embodied energy, 34-48% of CO2 eq emissions, and 72% of materials by mass compared to building a new apartment building. However, various technical, financial, and regulatory challenges may hinder emissions reductions, necessitating proactive policy measures. Cities can potentially expedite the process by streamlining approvals for mixed-use adaptive reuse projects involving both commercial and residential spaces.
... BIM offers plenty of benefits for project management during its life cycle. A project is carried out through a long process which starts from a project idea, to feasibility studies, construction design and maintenance [5][6][7][8][9]. ...
The construction industry is an industry with the lowest rate of digitized technology implementation in
comparison to other industrial sectors. This causes low productivity, low efficiency, low profit margin, and an increase in
waste production. Indonesia is a country with a high level of infrastructural constructions, which consists of the construction
of various kinds of buildings, roads, bridges, dams, airports, and seaports. Construction digitization can be enhanced
through developing BIM technology. In Indonesia, BIM Technology is more advanced in building construction projects in
comparison to road and bridge projects. In this study, we would like to analyze the implementation of BIM technology in
building, road and bridge constructions in Indonesia. The maturity index would offer a visualization regarding the rate of
which BIM technology is implemented in building, road, and bridge projects. The average BIM maturity index of a building
construction project is 2.71 while the index for road and bridge projects is 2.64. Government regulation regarding BIM for
building construction projects may encourage companies to advance BIM technology’s abilities. The adoption of BIM
technology in contractor companies is more advanced compared to that of consultant companies. Major companies such as
the State-Owned Corporation (BUMN) contractor has managed to successfully adopt BIM technology to near perfection
with a score of 3.8. Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) face a multitude of problems in adopting BIM technology due to
their limitations.
... The World Economic and Social Survey conducted by the United Nations, recognizes 'investment in retrofitting of buildings' and 'upgrading of public infrastructures' as key opportunities for sustainability in developed countries (UN 2013). Research has shown that renovation of existing buildings is associated with 53%-75% reduction in environmental impact in the life cycle of building components (Hasik et al. 2019). Apart from considerations of sustainability, assessment of existing masonry structures for structural and non-structural repair constitutes a significant market share of consulting services provided by structural engineering and architectural firms. ...
"Posted/Reprinted with permission of The Masonry Society (TMS). For additional information, visit masonrysociety.org."
Assessing existing masonry structures for structural and non-structural repair and rehabilitation constitutes a significant market share of consulting services provided by structural engineering and architectural firms. However, there is currently no consensus standard in the United States for existing masonry. The Masonry Society (TMS) 402/602 applies only to new construction. While there are many reference books, seminars, and papers on the subject of existing masonry repair, rehabilitation, and related topics, none of these can be adopted by a governing building code or Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) as an enforceable means of ensuring public safety. This leaves the engineers who perform condition and damage assessments of, and design repairs to, existing masonry structures to operate on an engineering judgment basis, seasoned by experience. A consensus standard for existing masonry could define the minimum standard of care for evaluating masonry and provide an enforceable means of ensuring public safety. A task group to TMS Existing Masonry Committee (EMC) is working to develop a set of guidelines written in code language with the goal of producing such a consensus standard for existing masonry. While a companion paper proposes a flowchart towards this goal, this paper documents the task group's findings to date including industry demand for a standard, a summary of previous attempts to develop a standard, an overview of the parent effort within the American Concrete Institute (ACI) to develop ACI 562-Code Requirements for Assessment, Repair, and Rehabilitation of Existing Concrete Structures, and an overview of strategy moving forward. Preliminary content descriptions of the proposed chapters are also included. Masonry is unique in its many typologies, its broad use as a structural and non-structural material, its role in the building envelope, and as a composite material-it is complex. Developing a standard that honors all facets of masonry construction will not be easy, but it is essential to ensuring public safety.
This paper explores the environmental impacts of retaining or replacing buildings by extending the consequential replacement framework (CRF) for life-cycle assessment (LCA) from individual buildings towards the urban scale. It addresses a gap in previous studies by examining the broader consequences of building-level retention or replacement decisions in the built environment, namely greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from associated infrastructure construction. The case study, which is located in Finland, investigates alternative ways to densify a growing city, some of which can be achieved within the urban structure, while others require greenfield construction elsewhere in the city. The results reveal that refurbishing and extending already existing buildings is worthwhile in terms of GHG emissions, even if some of the additional floor area targeted in densification were to be built on a greenfield site. After 50 years, the accumulated GHG emissions of scenarios that develop existing buildings are 0.2–12% less than those from replacement scenarios, depending on whether the targeted densification is minor or major and the amount of infrastructure construction involved. This is primarily due to the 11–35% smaller upfront embodied GHG emissions of refurbishment compared with new construction—which 50 years do not offset.
Policy relevance
This paper reinforces the notion from previous research that developing the existing building stock holds major emission-savings potential, even more so than replacement with energy-efficient new build. It highlights the potential contribution of existing building stocks in low-emission city development, even in growing city contexts. The case study results challenge the common belief in urban planning that if replacement involves densification, it must be a more low-emission alternative than retention, and conversely, if retention leads to greenfield construction, it must be higher in emissions than replacement. Low-emission urban planning should base its conclusions on urban LCA. This paper introduces an infrastructure-extended CRF that accounts for building retention and replacement scenarios, ensuring methodological robustness. The approach is essential for policymakers to base their decisions on evidence and prioritise low-emission development alternatives. Which policymakers hold power over such decisions and which instruments are suitable to pursue these goals depend on the context.
The construction industry, characterized by high energy use and carbon emissions, necessitates a thorough and accurate life cycle assessment (LCA). This review investigates how building information modeling (BIM) software can streamline the LCA process to improve both efficiency and precision. Although BIM has considerable potential, challenges remain, such as issues with software interoperability and a lack of standardized options for BIM-integrated LCA tools. The review also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various BIM software, LCA tools, and energy consumption tools, and highlights case studies of BIM-LCA integration. It provides a critical analysis of methods and techniques for BIM-LCA integration and data exchange, including the import of bills of quantities, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), the use of BIM viewers, direct LCA calculations with BIM plugins, and calculations using LCA plugins. The study concludes with future outlooks, aiming to direct the development of improved LCA tools that offer better integration with BIM software, which is crucial for advancing sustainable construction practices.
Retrofit involves renovating or upgrading buildings or systems by integrating new technologies and concepts, aiming to increase property value, change usage, and enhance operational and energy efficiency. However, adopting Building Information Modeling (BIM) for retrofit development requires mature processes, especially in gathering information about the current state of the building. This study aims to develop a BIM model for building retrofit using BIM methodologies, employing digital technologies and non-destructive tests to overcome the lack of building record documentation. A case study of a 2,404.5 m² building in Brasília was conducted, involving five stages: (1) 3D scanning for point cloud survey; (2) Mapping and classification of pathologies and damages; (3) Survey of construction systems; (4) BIM modeling based on surveys (AS IS model); and (5) BIM retrofit model. Results identified facades, roofs, and indoor pathologies with minimal to moderate risk. Electrical and hydraulic systems were surveyed and modeled, with some concrete pillars showing lower compression resistance. The use of BIM facilitated project development by improving collaboration, transparency, and compatibility between architectural and engineering projects. Challenges findings included limited project information and difficulties in monitoring electrical and plumbing systems. Although current information suffices, additional studies are needed to map plumbing and budget for new retrofit changes and identify potential future research limitations.
This paper focuses on utilizing deep reinforcement learning technology to explore how to achieve automated architectural space composition under established built environment conditions to address the extensive demands of old building renovation. A reinforcement learning platform has been developed, centered around the multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) algorithm. The paper leverages functional blocks as agents within Grasshopper to simulate existing architectural structures and their interactions, establishing a task-based reward system to guide the design process. Furthermore, data exchange between algorithmic and modeling software is facilitated through UDP communication. Training results using typical frame structure spaces indicate a significant increase in cumulative rewards around the 650,000th training step, effectively achieving the given design tasks. The paper demonstrates the potential of automated architectural space composition methods, based on deep reinforcement learning, to enhance design efficiency, optimize spatial arrangements, and promote human-machine collaborative design in building renovations.
The Swiss habitat–buildings and related mobility–faces multiple interconnected problems which can only be solved together. These include high energy consumption, significant climate impact, excessive material use with low circularity, accelerating urban sprawl and ecosystem destruction, high mobility costs, low inclusion, and mixed wellbeing outcomes. Guided by values of wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries, we propose a normative scenario based on a nationwide moratorium on new construction until 2100, coupled with four simultaneous neighborhood-scale interventions: renovating buildings to achieve energy class A with high indoor environmental quality, creating flexible shared living spaces, ensuring essential daily services are available within each neighborhood, and deconstructing unneeded settlements. Action levers, coordinated efforts on multiple system leverage points, are here combined with rethinking needs satisfiers. Our model predicts that full renovation could be accomplished in 14–18 years, significantly reducing labor, energy, materials, and costs both during and after the transition. Furthermore, it could reverse urban sprawl to levels seen in 1935 or even 1885, depending on deconstruction choices. These findings suggest that demand-side policies could be implemented with low risk, enhancing wellbeing, energy resilience, biodiversity, and climate action, thus providing a strong foundation for societal dialog and experimentation.
Carbon emissions from the building sector account for around half of China's national CEs and have been the obstacle to reaching China's two-carbon goal. However, whether the prefabricated technique can mitigate CEs for the building sector is still argued by studies. In consideration of this, this study proposes an LCA and BIM-simulation integrated model to comprehensively calculate CEs of prefabricated (PBs) and traditional cast-in-situ buildings (TBs). The BIM simulation is verified by an analytical method. The results show that the total carbon emission intensity (CEI) of PB is 9.61 % lower than that of the TB, showing a significant advantage in CE reduction potential and can be chosen as the developing direction in the future. The main CEs come from the operation and maintenance stage, where the TB emits 11.02 % higher CEs than those of the PB. For the materialization stage, where CEs are centralized in a short period, the difference between CEIs of the PB and TB is 3.32 %, which is not significantly different. The collected data and calculated results in this study can be quite beneficial to future sustainability studies in the same research domain, especially the integrated application of BIM and LCA. This study also contributes to knowledge by proposing a comprehensive CE calculation model and providing reasonable measures for CE reduction, which is beneficial to the sustainable development of the building sector to achieve China's two-carbon goal.
Aufstockungsmaßnahmen zur innerstädtischen Nachverdichtung bieten eine Möglichkeit den vorhandenen Bestand zu sanieren, weiter zu nutzen und Wohnraum ohne weitere Flächenverbräuche zu schaffen. In der Arbeit werden ökologische und ökonomische Lebenszyklusuntersuchungen von Aufstockungsmaßnahmen durch Ökobilanzen und Lebenszykluskostenrechnungen zunächst methodisch entwickelt und für Projekte angewandt. Ebenso wird eine Systematik zur Bewertung der Weiternutzung von Bestandsstrukturen erarbeitet und angewandt. Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Qualität der energetischen Sanierung des Gebäudes großen Einfluss auf die Gesamtumweltwirkungen besitzt. Für Kostenverläufe sind vor allem Kosten für Materialien ausschlaggebend. Durch einen Vergleich zwischen einer Aufstockung und einer Abriss-Neubau Variante kann gezeigt werden, dass die Weiternutzung von Bestandsstrukturen große materialbedingte Vorteile erzeugt und die Aufstockung sowohl emissions- als auch kostentechnisch vorteilhaft ist.
Building rehabilitation and sustainability must go hand in hand to ensure the preservation
of the built environment and environmentally conscious practices. Construction is one of the most
polluting industries with a high impact on the carbon footprint. Thus, building rehabilitation appears
as an effective strategy to reduce this impact, promoting the reuse of more efficient materials and
technologies. This study focuses on the rehabilitation of existing buildings as a sustainable strategy
and presents the quantitative profile of academic publications in the last 10 years, showing the main
themes studied. The results of the sample surveyed on the Scopus platform show an increasing
number of publications in the period surveyed (2012–2023), which shows a growing academic interest
in the topic. It is possible to see that the publication trend line is ascending and that the largest number
of articles investigates building rehabilitation, followed by the rehabilitation of school buildings,
energy issues, rehabilitation methods, materials technology, water issues, and sustainability related
to rehabilitation.
In the attempt to adhere to the UK’s 2050 Net-Zero Strategy, more attention has been given to energy-centric decision-making over the regeneration of housing estates. Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) is the methodology used for the evaluation of the overall carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions of building projects over their lifecycle. The WLCA studies are mostly not understood by different stakeholders and are less effective in reducing the Global Warming Potential (GWP) impacts in the development of regeneration scenarios. This paper is part of a larger study on a multistakeholder lifecycle-based sustainability assessment framework and aims to further explore whether retrofitting can outperform the existing and new build scenarios for lower GWP impacts, and intends to examine the use of WLCA for the development of a regeneration scenario. The research consists of a single-case case study employing co-design workshops, surveys, and WLCA experiments. The community’s preferred regeneration scenario has been developed through knowledge mobility and co-design workshops with the members of the community and a UCL team of designers and researchers. The WLCA of different regeneration scenarios (existing building, different refurbishment scenarios, and a previously approved redevelopment scheme) has been conducted using the data from desk-based research, site surveys, building regulations, retrofit case studies and guidelines, and the planning documents of the council’s previously approved new build scheme. The results of the WLCA support the current studies in favour of the refurbishment scenarios over the demolition and rebuilding of the estate, and make a case for the necessity of understanding the GWP in design development to reduce the GWP of regeneration scenarios.
Construction 4.0 is a platform that combines digital and physical technologies to enhance the design and construction of the built environment. Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM), a component of Construction 4.0′s digital technologies, streamlines construction processes and promotes collaboration among project stakeholders. In this study, a comprehensive literature review and bibliometric and content analysis are conducted on building information modeling (BIM), life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost (LCC), BrIM, and Bridge LCA. This study investigates the potential integration of BrIM, LCA, and LCC as inputs for bridges’ LCA to enhance decision making by providing designers with detailed and interactive cost and environmental information throughout an asset’s lifecycle and explores the functionalities of Construction 4.0 and its potential influence on the economy and sustainability of bridge projects. The reviewed literature showed that the tools currently used to apply LCA and LCC methods for infrastructure assets lack the ability to identify possible integration with BrIM and hold limitations in their key functions for identifying the utmost features that need to be adopted in the creation of any tool to increase the general resilience of bridges and infrastructure.
EU aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Besides energy consumption reduction, also greenhouse gas emissions have to be cut starting from the production of materials and construction work through the use phase to the end of the use of the building. Existing buildings are estimated to provide a high potential for reducing global warming. This paper focuses on research question, how reasonable are energy efficiency improvements of existing buildings, as the materials used in the process produce CO2 emissions and increase costs compared with conventional maintenance. This issue is a part of the Sustainable Development Goal 13 Climate Action, which integrates climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning and a part of Goal 11 Sustainable cities and communities, which tries to increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion resource efficiency mitigation and adaption to climate change. The carbon footprint of an existing renovated building constitutes mainly from energy consumption emissions. In life cycle costs, the deciding factor is investment. If the building was heated by zero-emission ground source heat, structural renovations would not be worth doing. On the other hand, structural improvement of energy efficiency is recommendable if a building is connected to district heating (DH). Strong reasons, either endogenous or exogenous, must exist for replacing an existing building with a new one. They cannot be justified with the carbon footprint or life cycle costs. These results apply to countries, where the energy efficiency of existing buildings is reasonably good.KeywordsDeep renovation Rebuilding Carbon footprint Life cycle cost
Energy efficiency
This paper proposes an approach of sensitivity analysis for LCA of building retrofit measures aiming to establish the impact of input data uncertainties on the output variance. The approach includes the quantification of data input uncertainties in terms of their Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs), their sampling and the uncertainty propagation through Monte Carlo (MC) methods. A sensitivity analysis through Variance based decomposition (Sobol’ method) techniques are used to point out the key parameters uncertainties that mostly affect the LCA results distributions. The paper presents a building case-study where the MC-based uncertainty and sensitivity analysis method is applied considering different design options (XPS and Cork internal insulation measures) and different scenarios for the assessment of the building energy need (use phase). Results obtained highlight that the differences on the Climate change environmental impact between the two design options is quite limited (about 12%) and this is mainly due to the use phase which is the more relevant input parameter on the overall result. Concerning the Sensitivity Analysis, when the building energy need is considered as a “deterministic” input in the LCA assessment, the unitary impacts of the design options materials uncertainties are the most influential parameters. On the other hands, when the building energy need is represented by a PDF, the quantity of energy carrier consumed and its unitary environmental impact are the most influential parameters on the output variance.
This review organises and summarises the recent contributions related to the environmental evaluation of building refurbishment and renovation using the lifecycle assessment (LCA) methodology. This paper classifies the recent contributions in this field and selects the primary methodology options. The review shows that most LCAs focus on energy refurbishment, comparing the environmental impacts before and after refurbishment. In contrast, almost none of the LCAs study the environmental impact of building system reparations, such as structure or finishing. The more frequently studied life cycle stages are those related to the manufacturing and use phases. Similarly, the most considered impact categories are the global warming potential and embodied energy. The main barriers found for disseminations are discussed: system boundaries interpretation of EN 15978, functional unit, LCI methods, operational stage and the end-of-life stage definition.
The building sector contributes up to 40% of energy consumption and 30% of greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) worldwide [1]. One of the main driver to mitigate these energy and GHG emissions is the renovation of existing buildings. While the energy demand is reduced during an energy related renovation, investment costs and environmental impacts increase due to the materials and building integrated technical systems (BITS) replaced or added to improve its energy performance. To address these trade-offs, there is a need to consider a life cycle approach to avoid impacts’ transfer between the operational and embodied energy and impacts. In this paper, we present a pragmatic Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology for energy related renovation measures of building developed in the framework of the IEA annex 56 “Cost effective energy and carbon emissions optimization in building renovation”. The approach is consistent with the existing building LCA's state-of-the-art but goes into a more applicable methodology by focusing only on the significant life cycle stages for energy related building renovation i.e. the production, transportation, replacement and end of life of new materials for the thermal envelope and building integrated technical systems (BITS) and the operational energy demand. In this paper, the methodology is applied on a Swiss multi-family residential building built in 1965 which was renovated in 2010. The LCA is presented using three indicators: the total and non-renewable cumulative energy demand (CED) and the global warming potential (GWP). Results show that embodied CED and GWP remain negligible in the renovated building compared to the energy savings. Further studies are needed to further apply this LCA methodology.
Purpose
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has not been widely applied in the building design process because it is perceived to be complex and time-consuming. There is a high demand for simplified approaches that architects can use without detailed knowledge of LCA. This paper presents a parametric LCA approach, which allows architects to efficiently reduce the environmental impact of building designs.
Methods
First, the requirements for design-integrated LCA are analyzed. Then, assumptions to simplify the required data input are made and a parametric model is established. The model parametrizes all input, including building geometry, materials, and boundary conditions, and calculates the LCA in real time. The parametric approach possesses the advantage that input parameters can be adjusted easily and quickly. The architect has two options to improve the design: either through manually changing geometry, building materials, and building services, or through the use of an optimization solver. The parametric model was implemented in a parametric design software and applied using two cases: (a) the design of a new multi-residential building, and (b) retrofitting of a single-family house.
Results and discussion
We have successfully demonstrated the capability of the approach to find a solution with minimum environmental impact for both examples. In the first example, the parametric method is used to manually compare geometric design variants. The LCA is calculated based on assumptions for materials and building services. In the second example, evolutionary algorithms are employed to find the optimum combination of insulation material, heating system, and windows for retrofitting. We find that there is not one optimum insulation thickness, but many optima, depending on the individual boundary conditions and the chosen environmental indicator.
Conclusions
By incorporating a simplified LCA into the design process, the additional effort of performing LCA is minimized. The parametric approach allows the architect to focus on his main task of designing the building and finally makes LCA practically useful for design optimization. In the future, further performance analysis capabilities such as life cycle costing can also be integrated.
The building sector significantly impacts on the environment during every stage of the building life cycle. The necessary transition toward a carbon-neutral society is driving a growing attention toward the refurbishment of old buildings, fostering intervention measures with the twofold objective of reducing operational energy consumption, typically upgrading the thermal insulation, and ensuring the quality of the consumed energy by adopting renewable and sustainable energy in the supply chain, such as thermal and photovoltaic solar energy.In seismic prone areas the vulnerability of existing buildings, not designed according to modern building codes, could hamper the efficiency of the solely energy refurbishment, besides representing a safety hazard. The present paper investigates a framework to quantify the influence of seismic events on the environmental impact assessment of buildings.The investigated framework is applied to a selected building, considering the building as alternatively located in regions with different seismicity. As an example, the building environmental impact is evaluated, in terms of carbon footprint, in the case of two different scenarios: upon completion of an energy refurbishment only, and after a coupled intervention targeting energy refurbishment and seismic retrofit. The results show that, in case of energy refurbishment only, the building located in a high-seismicity region presents an expected additional annual embodied equivalent carbon dioxide due to seismic risk, which almost equals the annual operational carbon dioxide after thermal refurbishment.
The first aim of the present work is to assess the environmental impact of specific rendering mortars able to be applied in the vertical opaque envelopes of an existing school building from the 80's built in Portugal, to reduce condensation effects and heat transfer. Ordinary cement and hydraulic lime mortars where compared to cork added and EPS added mortars. Energy performance and energy audit of the building was estimated and compared to the original behaviour of the school building. LCA variant called cradle to gate was used to compare the environmental impacts of building thermal rehabilitation and its effect on the energy consumption for heating and operational energy (OE), for different mortars service life. The simulation made in the school show that ordinary cement or hydraulic lime mortars, leads to much higher global warming potential, where CO2 emissions are more than 3 tonnes per building intervention. The use of mortars with cork addition, leads to a reduction of CO2 emission up to 30% and 20% reduction in embodied energy (EE), when compared to traditional mortars. Cork mortars present smaller EE than EPS mortars. Results shows that it is possible to slightly reduce OE by using materials with lower EE value.
Norwegian Bank "SpareBank 1 SMN" in 2008 decided to reestablish their headquarters in Trondheim. The key question addressed in the process, was whether to rehabilitate the existing building or demolish it and construct a new one. Becoming aware of the environmental issues related to the decision, a project was set up to assess the consequences for green building. The analysis concluded that from a climate point of view the most favourable strategy was to replace the existing construction and build a new one. A hybrid LCA approach was used as the assessing tool, and in the paper we discuss the methodological challenges facing analyses addressing the issue of comprehensive analytical approaches in order to inform decisions in this respect. The paper shows the usefulness of life cycle models as input to a decision making process in a feasibility phase of the project. In addition, data availability and methodological issues are discussed in some detail.
Buildings demand energy in their life cycle right from its construction to demolition. Studies on the total energy use during the life cycle are desirable to identify phases of largest energy use and to develop strategies for its reduction. In the present paper, a critical review of the life cycle energy analyses of buildings resulting from 73 cases across 13 countries is presented. The study includes both residential and office buildings. Results show that operating (80–90%) and embodied (10–20%) phases of energy use are significant contributors to building's life cycle energy demand. Life cycle energy (primary) requirement of conventional residential buildings falls in the range of 150–400 kWh/m2 per year and that of office buildings in the range of 250–550 kWh/m2 per year. Building's life cycle energy demand can be reduced by reducing its operating energy significantly through use of passive and active technologies even if it leads to a slight increase in embodied energy. However, an excessive use of passive and active features in a building may be counterproductive. It is observed that low energy buildings perform better than self-sufficient (zero operating energy) buildings in the life cycle context. Since, most of the case studies available in open literature pertain to developed and/or cold countries; hence, energy indicative figures for developing and/or non-cold countries need to be evaluated and compared with the results presented in this paper.
Interest in sustainability and resilience of buildings has led to a growing body of literature on merging environmental impact assessment methods with seismic loss estimation methods. Researchers have taken different approaches to connecting the two fields with the common goal of estimating the social, environmental, and economic impacts of damage to buildings subject to seismic events and thus enabling the study of tradeoffs
between performance objectives. The differences among these studies include topics such as treatment of uncertainty, types of components and systems considered in the performance assessment, fidelity of structural analysis ranging from region-specific empirical fragility curves to detailed building-specific finite element analysis, scope of life cycle assessment, and so on. One of the aspects of the most diverse treatment has been in obtaining environmental impact data and relating it to pre-use impact estimates. For example, the translation of damage and repairs into life-cycle environmental impacts has been done by one of three approaches: (1) Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) has been applied to economic loss estimates; (2) repair cost-ratios have been applied to environmental impacts from the pre-use stage; and (3) repair descriptions have
been used to model environmental impacts of damage scenarios directly using process life cycle assessment (LCA). All of the approaches are generally accepted but may pose limitations in certain applications and can potentially result in inconsistent conclusions from study to study. A review of existing literature in the area is presented and is followed by a comparative analysis and discussion of the outcomes of taking different environmental life cycle assessment approaches. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the research efforts in this area and discusses opportunities for further development in order to make the implementation consistent and practical for design decision making.
With the world's uncertain energy outlook, buildings should be designed and constructed to use lesser fossil fuel-based energy and have lower environmental impacts. In the past decades, the research and practice have successfully focused on reducing the operational energy use. As a result, the share of embodied energy, the other energy component, has increased in the life cycle energy use of buildings.
The present article provides an overview of literature on embodied energy use in buildings in several directions. It reports on key estimation methodologies and tools for embodied energy and presents the embodied energy values for different types of buildings, as studied by the extant literature. It also examines embodied energy in relation to operational energy and highlights the recent shifts in share and significance of embodied energy in the building life cycle energy use. The article also presents a review of the embodied energy of tall buildings and explores the relation between embodied energy and building height. Finally, major strategies to reduce embodied energy, and research gaps and trends in the field are covered.
Architects and planners have been at the forefront of envisioning a future built environment for millennia. However, fragmental views that emphasize one facet of the built environment, such as energy, environment, or groundbreaking technologies, often do not achieve expected outcomes. Buildings are responsible for approximately one-third of worldwide carbon emissions and account for about 40% of primary energy consumption in the U.S. In addition to achieving the very ambitious goal of reducing building-associated greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2050, buildings must improve their functionality and performance to meet current and future human, societal, and environmental needs in a changing world. In this article, we introduce a new framework to guide potential evolution of the building stock in the next century, based on greenhouse gas emissions as the common thread to investigate the potential implications of new design paradigms, innovative operational strategies, and disruptive technologies. This framework emphasizes integration of multidisciplinary knowledge, scalability for mainstream buildings, and proactive approaches considering constraints and unknowns. The framework integrates the interrelated aspects of the built environment through a series of quantitative metrics that aim to improve environmental outcomes while optimizing building performance to achieve healthy, adaptive, and productive buildings.
This literature review addresses the Life Cycle Energy Analysis (LCEA) of residential buildings. As the fluctuation in the choice of functional units, boundaries of the system, life cycle inventory (LCI) methods, metrics and impact indicators complicated the potential comparability, the guidelines of Product Category Rule (PCR) 2014:02 for buildings were applied for the normalization procedure. Even though PCR provided a clear statement of the boundaries and a complete presentation of the results, uncertainty deriving from the LCI methods and the omissions in the system boundaries indicates that further standardization is needed. The sample consisted of 90 LCEA case studies of conventional, passive, low energy and nearly zero energy residential buildings (nZEB). Additional analysis identified an underestimation between case studies that use process instead of hybrid analysis, as the average value of embodied energy in hybrid analysis appears to be 3.92 times higher than in process analysis case studies. The highest value of embodied energy for an nZEB case study quantified with process analysis appears to be lower than all the input-output hybrid case studies. A revised definition, according to current trends and requirements in energy efficiency regulations, was also provided as an update of their consistency in time. Operating energy appeared to dominate in life cycle energy of residential buildings in the past. The results of this review show an increasing share of embodied energy in the transaction from conventional to passive, low energy and nZEB, despite the reduction in the total life cycle energy that could reach up to 50%. The share of embodied energy dominates, mainly in low energy and nearly zero energy buildings, with a share of 26%–57% and 74%–100% respectively. In passive buildings, the share of embodied energy varies within a range between 11% and 33% that reaches the embodied energy limits of both a conventional and a low energy building. The use of renewable energy sources (RES) in a passive house, for the production of electricity, classifies it in the range of embodied energy of an nZEB. A significant gap of 17% in the share of embodied energy, between the nearly zero and the most energy efficient building examined in the current review, is identified. This difference appears to be more important for the conventional and passive buildings, indicating the relative significance of embodied energy through time and towards the nZEB. Furthermore, if uncertainty and the underestimation of embodied energy deriving by process analysis were considered this gap could be different. The increase of embodied energy in buildings, indicates that a whole life cycle energy analysis may be needed in the methodological framework of current energy efficiency regulations.
The article could be downloaded for free until 31 of July 2016 at the following link:
http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1TBel1HudMoGgY
When a building undergoes a retrofit project, the goal of assessing energy and environmental performances of retrofit actions is a complex matter. Building and its environment are complex systems in which all sub-systems are strongly interdependent and influence the overall efficiency performance. In the following paper, starting from a literature review of building life-cycle studies, the authors highlight that there is a strong interplay among all the phases of a building life-cycle, as each one can affect one or more of the others.
The building industry uses great quantities of raw materials that also involve high energy consumption. Choosing materials with high content in embodied energy entails an initial high level of energy consumption in the building production stage but also determines future energy consumption in order to fulfil heating, ventilation and air conditioning demands.This paper presents the results of an LCA study comparing the most commonly used building materials with some eco-materials using three different impact categories. The aim is to deepen the knowledge of energy and environmental specifications of building materials, analysing their possibilities for improvement and providing guidelines for materials selection in the eco-design of new buildings and rehabilitation of existing buildings.The study proves that the impact of construction products can be significantly reduced by promoting the use of the best techniques available and eco-innovation in production plants, substituting the use of finite natural resources for waste generated in other production processes, preferably available locally. This would stimulate competition between manufacturers to launch more eco-efficient products and encourage the use of the Environmental Product Declarations.This paper has been developed within the framework of the “LoRe-LCA Project” co-financed by the European Commission’s Intelligent Energy for Europe Program and the “PSE CICLOPE Project” co-financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology and the European Regional Development Fund.
The environmental and resource impacts of wooden single-family residences designed to meet the conventional Norwegian Building Code from 2010 (TEK10) and the Norwegian passive house standard NS 3700 are compared using life cycle assessment. Four different heating systems are evaluated for the two building designs: (1) electric (resistance heating), (2) electric and wood, (3) electric and a solar heat collector and (4) electric and an air-water heat pump system. The goal of the research is to evaluate the different ways of lowering the total environmental burden of a building's life cycle, considering the two building standards, and evaluating the impacts due to implementation of renewable heating systems in comparison to standard Norwegian systems largely based on electricity. The life cycle results show that the wood-framed single-family residence built according to the passive house standard provides a consistent and clear reduction of cumulative energy demand of 24-38% in comparison to the conventional building standard TEK10 with electric panel heating. In combination with efficient heating systems, a passive house building envelope with a heat pump system provides the largest savings, an improvement of almost 40% compared to a conventional house with electric heating. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of the cleanest design compared to the standard alternative is almost 30%. Solar heated water also provides substantial environmental gains for the passive house. On the other hand, a standard building envelope with a heat-pump system reduces impacts to a level comparable to that of a passive house building with only electric heating.
A literature survey on buildings' life cycle energy use was performed, resulting in a total of 60 cases from nine countries. The cases included both residential and non-residential units. Despite climate and other background differences, the study revealed a linear relation between operating and total energy valid through all the cases. Case studies on buildings built according to different design criteria, and at parity of all other conditions, showed that design of low-energy buildings induces both a net benefit in total life cycle energy demand and an increase in the embodied energy. A solar house proved to be more energy efficient than an equivalent house built with commitment to use "green" materials. Also, the same solar house decreased life cycle energy demand by a factor of two with respect to an equivalent conventional version, when operating energy was expressed as end-use energy and the lifetime assumed to be 50 years. A passive house proved to be more energy efficient than an equivalent self-sufficient solar house. Also, the same passive house decreased life cycle energy demand by a factor of three - expected to rise to four in a new version - with respect to an equivalent conventional version, when operating energy was expressed as primary energy and the lifetime assumed to be 80 years.
The paper presents the results of an energy and environmental assessment of a set of retrofit actions implemented in the framework of the EU Project "BRITA in PuBs" (Bringing Retrofit Innovation to Application in Public Buildings - no: TREN/04/FP6EN/S07.31038/503135). Outcomes arise from a life cycle approach focused on the following issues: (i) construction materials and components used during retrofits; (ii) main components of conventional and renewable energy systems; (iii) impacts related to the building construction, for the different elements and the whole building. The results are presented according to the data format of the Environmental Product Declaration. Synthetic indices, as energy and GWP payback times, and energy return ratio, are defined to better describe the energy and environmental performances of the actions. The project highlights the role of the life cycle approach for selecting the most effective options during the design and implementation of retrofit actions.
A comprehensive case study life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted of a 7300 m2, six-story building with a projected 75 year life span, located on the University of Michigan campus. The bottom three floors and basement are used as classrooms and open-plan offices; the top three floors are used as hotel rooms. An inventory of all installed materials and material replacements was conducted covering the building structure, envelope, interior structure and finishes, as well as the utility and sanitary systems. Computer modeling was used to determine primary energy consumption for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, hot water and sanitary water consumption. Demolition and other end-of-life burdens were also inventoried.The primary energy intensity over the building’s life cycle is estimated to be 2.3×106 GJ, or 316 GJ/m2. Production of building materials, their transportation to the site as well as the construction of the building accounts for 2.2% of life cycle primary energy consumption. HVAC and electricity account for 94.4% of life cycle primary energy consumption. Water services account for 3.3% of life cycle primary energy consumption, with water heating being the major factor, due to the presence of hotel rooms in this building. Building demolition and transportation of waste, accounts for only 0.2% of life cycle primary energy consumption.All impact categories measured (global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, acidification potential, nutrification potential and solid waste generation) correlate closely with primary energy demand.The challenges in developing a life cycle model of a complex dynamic system with a long service life are explored and the implications for future designs are discussed.
There is an increasing complexity and interplay between all the issues associated with property portfolio decisions. This paper explores the relationships between financial, environmental and social parameters associated with building adaptive reuse. An adaptive reuse potential (ARP) model is developed and discussed in the context of its application to the Hong Kong market. The model can assist in the transformation of the traditional decision-making processes of property stakeholders towards more sustainable practices, strategies and outcomes, by providing a means by which the industry can identify and rank existing buildings that have high potential for adaptive reuse. This in turn enhances Hong Kong's ability for sustainable, responsive energy and natural resource management by allowing issues regarding excessive and inappropriate resource use to be identified and assessed, and enabling appropriate management strategies to be implemented. The ARP model proposed in this paper provides, illustrated by a real case study, an important step in making better use of the facilities we already have and the residual life embedded in them.
Total energy use during the life cycle of a building is a growing research field. The embodied energy makes up a considerable part of the total energy use in low energy buildings. Recycling provides the opportunity to reduce the embodied energy by using recycled materials and reusable/recyclable materials/components. This paper presents values on embodied energy, energy needed for operation and the recycling potential of the most energy efficient apartment housing in Sweden (). In a life span of 50 years, embodied energy accounted for 45% of the total energy need. The recycling potential was between 35% and 40% of the embodied energy.
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