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Mrs. Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt
Aalborg University Copenhagen

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0 Buildings
0 Environmental Impact Assessment
0 Resource Efficiency
0 circular economy
0 Greenhouse gas emission reduction

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Journal article
Published: 18 May 2021 in Sustainability
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Transitioning to a circular built environment can reduce the environmental impacts, resource consumption and waste generation emanating from buildings. However, there are many options to design circular building components, and limited knowledge on which options lead to the best environmental performance. Few guidelines exist and they build on conventional environmental performance assessments that focus on single life cycles, whereas the circular economy (CE) focuses on a sequence of multiple use- and life cycles. In this article, environmental design guidelines for circular building components were developed in five steps. First, examples of circular variants of a building structure were synthesized. Second, the environmental performance of these variants was compared with a business-as-usual variant through Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Material Flow Analysis (MFA) respectively. Circular parameters of these variants were tested using a scenario-specific approach. Third, from 24 LCAs and MFAs, a scorecard, rules-of-thumb and nine environmental design guidelines for designing circular building components were developed that provide guidance on which circular pathways and variants lead to the best environmental performance. For components with a long functional–technical lifespan, the following are promoted: resource efficiency, longer use through adaptable design, low-impact biomaterials and facilitating multiple cycles after and of use. Fourth, the design guidelines were evaluated by 49 experts from academia, industry and government in seven expert sessions. Further research is needed to validate the generalizability of the design guidelines. However, this research makes an important step in supporting the development of circular building components and, subsequently, the transition to a circular built environment.

ACS Style

Leonora Malabi Eberhardt; Anne van Stijn; Liv Kristensen Stranddorf; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. Environmental Design Guidelines for Circular Building Components: The Case of the Circular Building Structure. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5621 .

AMA Style

Leonora Malabi Eberhardt, Anne van Stijn, Liv Kristensen Stranddorf, Morten Birkved, Harpa Birgisdottir. Environmental Design Guidelines for Circular Building Components: The Case of the Circular Building Structure. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (10):5621.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Leonora Malabi Eberhardt; Anne van Stijn; Liv Kristensen Stranddorf; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. 2021. "Environmental Design Guidelines for Circular Building Components: The Case of the Circular Building Structure." Sustainability 13, no. 10: 5621.

Journal article
Published: 17 November 2020 in Sustainability
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Transitioning the built environment to a circular economy (CE) is vital to achieve sustainability goals but requires metrics. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can analyse the environmental performance of CE. However, conventional LCA methods assess individual products and single life cycles whereas circular assessment requires a systems perspective as buildings, components and materials potentially have multiple use and life cycles. How should benefits and burdens be allocated between life cycles? This study compares four different LCA allocation approaches: (a) the EN 15804/15978 cut-off approach, (b) the Circular Footprint Formula (CFF), (c) the 50:50 approach, and (d) the linearly degressive (LD) approach. The environmental impacts of four ‘circular building components’ is calculated: (1) a concrete column and (2) a timber column both designed for direct reuse, (3) a recyclable roof felt and (4) a window with a reusable frame. Notable differences in impact distributions between the allocation approaches were found, thus incentivising different CE principles. The LD approach was found to be promising for open and closed-loop systems within a closed loop supply chain (such as the ones assessed here). A CE LD approach was developed to enhance the LD approach’s applicability, to closer align it with the CE concept, and to create an incentive for CE in the industry.

ACS Style

Leonora Malabi Eberhardt; Anne Van Stijn; Freja Nygaard Rasmussen; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. Development of a Life Cycle Assessment Allocation Approach for Circular Economy in the Built Environment. Sustainability 2020, 12, 9579 .

AMA Style

Leonora Malabi Eberhardt, Anne Van Stijn, Freja Nygaard Rasmussen, Morten Birkved, Harpa Birgisdottir. Development of a Life Cycle Assessment Allocation Approach for Circular Economy in the Built Environment. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (22):9579.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Leonora Malabi Eberhardt; Anne Van Stijn; Freja Nygaard Rasmussen; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. 2020. "Development of a Life Cycle Assessment Allocation Approach for Circular Economy in the Built Environment." Sustainability 12, no. 22: 9579.

Journal article
Published: 24 September 2020 in Journal of Building Engineering
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Circular Economy (CE) can help reduce the building industry’s immense environmental impact. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can facilitate CE decision-making by identifying the largest environmental impact reduction opportunities throughout a building’s life cycle, but it does not suffice in a design situation. Thus, aggregated LCA knowledge is needed. However, existing building LCAs lack transparency, coherence and a closer coupling with the building context. Performing in-depth systematic LCA on four Danish case-study buildings (a school, an office, a residential building and a hospital), this study identifies where the largest embodied greenhouse gas emissions (EG) exist. The study also identifies which building design and construction strategies should be in focus in transitioning the building sector to a CE. The LCA generalisations found that all the buildings exhibited considerable EG originating from production and replacement of floors and ceilings, outer walls, inner walls and roofs. Thus, to come closer to meeting climate goals, a combination of different strategies going across and beyond the life cycles of buildings, components and materials is needed. These strategies include reusing existing buildings, components and materials; avoiding, substituting or reducing the use of EG-intensive and short-lived materials; and enabling future reuse, recycling and/or energy recovery options for materials. Differences between the buildings were also found. Thus, it is suggested to combine generalised learnings with LCA of buildings on a case-to-case basis, and to focus on optimising EG-intensive components and materials based on their different use-contexts and interconnectedness rather than on optimising the entire building.

ACS Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt; Julie Rønholt; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. Circular Economy potential within the building stock - Mapping the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of four Danish examples. Journal of Building Engineering 2020, 33, 101845 .

AMA Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt, Julie Rønholt, Morten Birkved, Harpa Birgisdottir. Circular Economy potential within the building stock - Mapping the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of four Danish examples. Journal of Building Engineering. 2020; 33 ():101845.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt; Julie Rønholt; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. 2020. "Circular Economy potential within the building stock - Mapping the embodied greenhouse gas emissions of four Danish examples." Journal of Building Engineering 33, no. : 101845.

Articles
Published: 23 June 2020 in Architectural Engineering and Design Management
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The considerable environmental impacts, resource consumption and waste generation emanating from buildings are a cause of great concern and political attention. Interest in the circular economy (CE) concept of slowing, narrowing and closing material loops through CE strategies (reuse, repair, refurbish, recycle and recover) has grown in recent years to facilitate minimising these unresolved issues emanating from the building industry. Although CE initiatives are proliferating within the industry, wide-scale adoption of CE is still lacking, and the current development and implementation of CE building design and construction strategies is fragmented. Through a systematic literature review (SLR), this study assesses which design and construction strategies are being linked to the concept of CE for new buildings, and their level of application and readiness in a building context. On this basis, the study offers insight into how this field of research is developing and provides directions for future research. From the SLR, a taxonomy is presented that groups the strategies together into 16 overarching building design and construction strategies. An important gap preventing a greater CE uptake within the industry was found to include the lack of knowledge about the environmental performance and related benefits of the various building design and construction strategies. Thus, it is suggested that conveying more comprehensive and uniform adoption of CE in the building industry requires the development of a new design typology to facilitate CE-oriented decision-making in a building context and that prioritises the strategies according to their potential in terms of minimising building-related environmental impacts.

ACS Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. Building design and construction strategies for a circular economy. Architectural Engineering and Design Management 2020, 1 -21.

AMA Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt, Morten Birkved, Harpa Birgisdottir. Building design and construction strategies for a circular economy. Architectural Engineering and Design Management. 2020; ():1-21.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt; Morten Birkved; Harpa Birgisdottir. 2020. "Building design and construction strategies for a circular economy." Architectural Engineering and Design Management , no. : 1-21.

Journal article
Published: 20 September 2018 in Building Research & Information
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ACS Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt; Harpa Birgisdóttir; Morten Birkved. Life cycle assessment of a Danish office building designed for disassembly. Building Research & Information 2018, 47, 666 -680.

AMA Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt, Harpa Birgisdóttir, Morten Birkved. Life cycle assessment of a Danish office building designed for disassembly. Building Research & Information. 2018; 47 (6):666-680.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Leonora Charlotte Malabi Eberhardt; Harpa Birgisdóttir; Morten Birkved. 2018. "Life cycle assessment of a Danish office building designed for disassembly." Building Research & Information 47, no. 6: 666-680.