TY - GEN
T1 - Embodied GHG emissions of buildings - Critical reflection of benchmark comparison and in-depth analysis of drivers
AU - Röck, Martin
AU - Balouktsi, Maria
AU - Saade, Marcella Ruschi Mendes
AU - Rasmussen, Freja Nygaard
AU - Hoxha, Endrit
AU - Birgisdottir, Harpa
AU - Frischknecht, Rolf
AU - Habert, Guillaume
AU - Passer, Alexander
AU - Lützkendorf, Thomas
N1 - Funding Information:
The analysis and results described in this paper relate to ongoing research within the international project IEA EBC Annex 72, which focuses on Assessing Life Cycle Related Environmental Impacts Caused by Buildings (http://annex72.iea-ebc.org). The Austrian contribution is financially supported by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), IEA Research Cooperation via the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) Grant #864142. Martin Röck is the recipient of a DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback, which helped improve the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/11/20
Y1 - 2020/11/20
N2 - In the face of the unfolding climate crisis, the role and importance of reducing Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector is increasing. This study investigates the global trends of GHG emissions occurring across the life cycle of buildings by systematically compiling life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and analysing more than 650 building cases. Based on the data extracted from these LCA studies, the influence of features related to LCA methodology and building design is analysed. Results show that embodied GHG emissions, which mainly arise from manufacturing and processing of building materials, are dominating life cycle emissions of new, advanced buildings. Analysis of GHG emissions at the time of occurrence, shows the upfront ‘carbon spike’ and emphasises the need to address and reduce the GHG ‘investment’ for new buildings. Comparing the results with existing life cycle-related benchmarks, we find only a small number of cases meeting the benchmark. Critically reflecting on the benchmark comparison, an in-depth analysis reveals different reasons for cases achieving the benchmark. While one would expect that different building design strategies and material choices lead to high or low embodied GHG emissions, the results mainly correlate with decisions related to LCA methodology, i.e. the scope of the assessments. The results emphasize the strong need for transparency in the reporting of LCA studies as well as need for consistency when applying environmental benchmarks. Furthermore, the paper opens up the discussion on the potential of utilizing big data and machine learning for analysis and prediction of environmental performance of buildings.
AB - In the face of the unfolding climate crisis, the role and importance of reducing Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector is increasing. This study investigates the global trends of GHG emissions occurring across the life cycle of buildings by systematically compiling life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and analysing more than 650 building cases. Based on the data extracted from these LCA studies, the influence of features related to LCA methodology and building design is analysed. Results show that embodied GHG emissions, which mainly arise from manufacturing and processing of building materials, are dominating life cycle emissions of new, advanced buildings. Analysis of GHG emissions at the time of occurrence, shows the upfront ‘carbon spike’ and emphasises the need to address and reduce the GHG ‘investment’ for new buildings. Comparing the results with existing life cycle-related benchmarks, we find only a small number of cases meeting the benchmark. Critically reflecting on the benchmark comparison, an in-depth analysis reveals different reasons for cases achieving the benchmark. While one would expect that different building design strategies and material choices lead to high or low embodied GHG emissions, the results mainly correlate with decisions related to LCA methodology, i.e. the scope of the assessments. The results emphasize the strong need for transparency in the reporting of LCA studies as well as need for consistency when applying environmental benchmarks. Furthermore, the paper opens up the discussion on the potential of utilizing big data and machine learning for analysis and prediction of environmental performance of buildings.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097740768&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/588/1/011001/pdf
U2 - 10.1088/1755-1315/588/3/032048
DO - 10.1088/1755-1315/588/3/032048
M3 - Article in proceeding
AN - SCOPUS:85097740768
T3 - IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
SP - 1
EP - 8
BT - Conference Proceedings
A2 - Wallbaum, Holger
A2 - Hollberg, Alexander
A2 - Thuvander, Liane
A2 - Femenias, Paula
A2 - Kurkowska, Izabela
A2 - Mjörnell, Kristina
A2 - Fudge, Colin
PB - IOP Publishing
T2 - World Sustainable Built Environment - Beyond 2020, WSBE 2020
Y2 - 2 November 2020 through 4 November 2020
ER -