This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.
Material use in buildings affects the climate over centuries, however, temporal aspects are often ignored in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Results too often promise uncontested precision of impacts occurring far into the future. Additionally, the validity of building LCAs is being questioned over inadequate scope and inventory. A dynamic LCA method for material use in buildings that addresses those concerns is presented, along with a case study of 20 buildings. In particular, a novel solution to account for delayed emissions is presented, along with future technological improvements. Climate change effects of material use in construction, operation, and end-of-life phases are estimated, from production, transport, construction-waste incineration, biogenic carbon-sequestration, and cement carbonation. Building subpart metrics reveal drivers of impacts and are used for generating statistical emission profiles. Application on a bottom-up harmonized dataset produces statistical results for building types (typology, timber/concrete) and building subparts (building elements, material categories). Global warming policy targets requires that the building industry focuses on interventions with short-term effects, such as low-impact materials in the construction phase and reduced construction waste. Uncertainty is estimated, and parameter influence assessed with global sensitivity analysis. Time horizon (TH), building lifetime, and construction waste parameters are found most sensitive. The method reduces uncertainty of postulated future impacts; an important step in the direction of policy-relevant modeling. We recommend that building LCA modeling practice adopts the presented methodological concepts to gain trust and policy-relevance.
Eirik Resch; Inger Andresen; Francesco Cherubini; Helge Brattebø. Estimating dynamic climate change effects of material use in buildings—Timing, uncertainty, and emission sources. Building and Environment 2020, 187, 107399 .
AMA StyleEirik Resch, Inger Andresen, Francesco Cherubini, Helge Brattebø. Estimating dynamic climate change effects of material use in buildings—Timing, uncertainty, and emission sources. Building and Environment. 2020; 187 ():107399.
Chicago/Turabian StyleEirik Resch; Inger Andresen; Francesco Cherubini; Helge Brattebø. 2020. "Estimating dynamic climate change effects of material use in buildings—Timing, uncertainty, and emission sources." Building and Environment 187, no. : 107399.
Low‐energy building standards shift environmental impacts from the operational to the embodied emissions, making material efficiency (ME) important for climate mitigation. To help quantify the mitigation potential of ME strategies, we developed a model that simulates the temporal material flows and greenhouse gas embodied emissions (GEEs) of the material use in the construction and renovation activities of a neighborhood by combining life‐cycle assessment with dynamic material‐flow analysis methods. We applied our model on a “zero emission neighborhood” project, under development from 2019 to 2080 and found an average material use of 1,049 kg/m2, an in‐use material stock of 43 metric tons/cap, and GEEs of 294 kgCO2e/m2. Although 52% of the total GEEs are caused by material use during initial construction, the remaining 48% are due to material replacements in a larger timeframe of 45 years. Hence, it is urgent to act now and design for ME over the whole service life of buildings. GEEs occurring far into the future will, however, have a reduced intensity because of future technology improvements, which we found to have a mitigation potential of 20%. A combination of ME strategies at different points in time will best mitigate overall GEEs. In the planning phase, encouraging thresholds on floor area per inhabitant can be set, materials with low GEEs must be chosen, and the buildings should be designed for ME and in a way that allows for re‐use of elements. Over time, good maintenance of buildings will postpone the renovation needs and extend the building lifetime.
Carine Lausselet; Johana Paola Forero Urrego; Eirik Resch; Helge Brattebø. Temporal analysis of the material flows and embodied greenhouse gas emissions of a neighborhood building stock. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2020, 25, 419 -434.
AMA StyleCarine Lausselet, Johana Paola Forero Urrego, Eirik Resch, Helge Brattebø. Temporal analysis of the material flows and embodied greenhouse gas emissions of a neighborhood building stock. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2020; 25 (2):419-434.
Chicago/Turabian StyleCarine Lausselet; Johana Paola Forero Urrego; Eirik Resch; Helge Brattebø. 2020. "Temporal analysis of the material flows and embodied greenhouse gas emissions of a neighborhood building stock." Journal of Industrial Ecology 25, no. 2: 419-434.
The embodied emissions of the construction materials in buildings are a significant contributor to climate change but have only rarely been systematically studied by statistical methods. In the early phases of a building project, empirical results of statistical emission profiles of different building types can act as useful guiding information to inform decisions regarding reduced embodied emissions from construction materials. However, engineers and architects do not have such information at disposition. In this paper, the embodied emissions from the production and transport of initial and recurring building material use in 7 Norwegian case studies of low-emission buildings are made comparable and then studied statistically to find out how the impact varies with building types. The building types studied are timber residential, concrete office, concrete school, and concrete swimming hall. Statistics are produced for each building type and are broken down by the impact contribution from different building elements and material categories. This results in embodied emission profiles and material use profiles for these four building types, which, when based on a larger dataset, can be used by architects and engineers to make informed decisions when aiming for reduced embodied emissions in the early phases of a construction project. Additionally, these profiles can be used as benchmarks by which the final building can be compared when the building is constructed. The statistical results are preliminary and based on a limited dataset, which makes them applicable only as an indication for Norwegian low-emission buildings of these four building types. Future work includes expansion of the dataset on which the profiling is based, further development of the statistical method, and applying the methodology to additional building types.
Eirik Resch; Helge Brattebø; Inger Andresen. Embodied emission profiles of building types: guidance for emission reduction in the early phases of construction projects. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 2020, 410, 012069 .
AMA StyleEirik Resch, Helge Brattebø, Inger Andresen. Embodied emission profiles of building types: guidance for emission reduction in the early phases of construction projects. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 2020; 410 (1):012069.
Chicago/Turabian StyleEirik Resch; Helge Brattebø; Inger Andresen. 2020. "Embodied emission profiles of building types: guidance for emission reduction in the early phases of construction projects." IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 410, no. 1: 012069.
Greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings constitute a large part of global emissions, where building materials and associated processes make up a significant fraction. These emissions are complicated to evaluate with current methodologies due to, amongst others, the lack of a link between the material inventory data and the aggregated results. This paper presents a method for evaluating and visualizing embodied emission (EE) data of building material production and transport, including replacements, from building life cycle assessments (LCAs). The method introduces a set of metrics that simultaneously serve as a breakdown of the EE results and as an aggregation of the building's inventory data. Furthermore, future emission reductions due to technological improvements are modeled and captured in technological factors for material production and material transport. The material inventory is divided into building subparts for high-resolution analysis of the EE. The metrics and technological factors are calculated separately for each subpart, which can then be evaluated in relation to the rest of the building and be compared to results from other buildings. Two methods for evaluating and visualizing the results are presented to illustrate the method's usefulness in the design process. A case study is used to demonstrate the methods. Key driving factors of EE are identified together with effective mitigation strategies. The inclusion of technological improvements shows a significant reduction in EE (−11.5%), reducing the importance of replacements. Furthermore, the method lays the foundation for further applications throughout the project phases by combining case-specific data with statistical data.
Eirik Resch; Carine Lausselet; Helge Brattebø; Inger Andresen. An analytical method for evaluating and visualizing embodied carbon emissions of buildings. Building and Environment 2019, 168, 106476 .
AMA StyleEirik Resch, Carine Lausselet, Helge Brattebø, Inger Andresen. An analytical method for evaluating and visualizing embodied carbon emissions of buildings. Building and Environment. 2019; 168 ():106476.
Chicago/Turabian StyleEirik Resch; Carine Lausselet; Helge Brattebø; Inger Andresen. 2019. "An analytical method for evaluating and visualizing embodied carbon emissions of buildings." Building and Environment 168, no. : 106476.
This paper addresses the role of virtual reality in addressing the specific challenge of the increasing complexity and decreasing usability when dealing with the level of detail required to model a zero emission neighbourhood (ZEN).[1] In such neighbourhoods, there is a need to handle both 'top down' neighbourhood level data with 'bottom up' building and material level data. This can quickly become overwhelming particularly when dealing with non expert users such as planners, architects, researchers and citizens who play a key part in the design process of future ZENs. Visualisation is an invaluable means to communicate complex data in an interactive way that makes it easier for diverse stakeholders to engage in decision making early and throughout the design process. The main purpose of this work has been to make ZEN key performance indicators (KPIs) more easily comprehensible to a diverse set of stakeholders who need to be involved in the early design phase. The paper investigates how existing extended reality (XR) technologies, such as virtual reality, can be integrated with an existing dynamic LCA method in order to provide visualise feedback on KPIs in early phase design of sustainable neighbourhoods. This existing method provides a dynamic link between the REVIT Bim and the ZEB Tool using a Dynamo plugin.[2] The results presented in this paper demonstrate how virtual reality can help to improve stakeholder participation in the early design phase and more easily integrate science-based knowledge on GHG emissions and other KPIs into the further development of the user-centered architectural and urban ZEN toolbox for the design and planning, operation and monitoring of ZENs. [3]
A H Wiberg; S Løvhaug; M Mathisen; B Tschoerner; Eirik Resch; Marius Erdt; E Prasolova-Førland. Visualisation of KPIs in zero emission neighbourhoods for improved stakeholder participation using Virtual Reality. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 2019, 323, 012074 .
AMA StyleA H Wiberg, S Løvhaug, M Mathisen, B Tschoerner, Eirik Resch, Marius Erdt, E Prasolova-Førland. Visualisation of KPIs in zero emission neighbourhoods for improved stakeholder participation using Virtual Reality. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 2019; 323 (1):012074.
Chicago/Turabian StyleA H Wiberg; S Løvhaug; M Mathisen; B Tschoerner; Eirik Resch; Marius Erdt; E Prasolova-Førland. 2019. "Visualisation of KPIs in zero emission neighbourhoods for improved stakeholder participation using Virtual Reality." IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 323, no. 1: 012074.
There is a growing body of research on the embodied emissions of individual buildings, but the results and methods remain mostly inaccessible and incomparable due to insufficient reported information, and differences in system boundaries, methods, and data used. This inhibits further utilization of the results in statistical applications and makes interpretation and validation of results difficult. The database tool presented in this paper attempts to mitigate these challenges by systematizing and storing all relevant information for these studies in a compatible format. The tool enables comparison of results across system boundaries, improves the transparency and reproducibility of the assessments, and makes utilization of the results in statistical applications possible. Statistical applications include embodied emission benchmarking, identifying emission drivers, and quantifying relationships between variables. Other applications of the tool include the assessment of embodied emissions of buildings and neighborhoods. This paper presents the tool and exemplifies its use with preliminary results based on a dataset of 11 buildings. Work is ongoing to expand the dataset, which will provide more comprehensive results.
Eirik Resch; Inger Andresen. A Database Tool for Systematic Analysis of Embodied Emissions in Buildings and Neighborhoods. Buildings 2018, 8, 106 .
AMA StyleEirik Resch, Inger Andresen. A Database Tool for Systematic Analysis of Embodied Emissions in Buildings and Neighborhoods. Buildings. 2018; 8 (8):106.
Chicago/Turabian StyleEirik Resch; Inger Andresen. 2018. "A Database Tool for Systematic Analysis of Embodied Emissions in Buildings and Neighborhoods." Buildings 8, no. 8: 106.
Compact cities have been attributed to lower per capita energy use. However, the complexity of relationships between the elements that constitute energy consumption in the urban system is poorly understood. Little or no research exist on the relation between energy costs of building taller, and transportation and infrastructure energy benefits of building denser. This study provides a theoretical assessment of how energy use is related to urban density in a densely populated area, to aid the development of sustainable cities and land-use planning. The paper builds a holistic parametric model to estimate the total urban energy use for space heating, embodied building energy, transportation energy, and road infrastructure energy, and how these relate to urban density. It does so by varying building height and other urban characteristics related to density, with the aim of identifying the most influential parameters with regard to energy consumption. The possibility of an optimal building height and urban density is also investigated. A much denser and taller city structure than what is normal in cities today appears to be optimal for low urban energy use. The most influential urban density indicators are found to be the dwelling service level (m2/cap) and the building design lifetime. Transportation energy becomes increasingly important with a rise in population. Results indicate that depending on population and building lifetime there exists an optimal building height in the range of 7-27 stories. Climate is found to significantly influence the energy results. These preliminary findings are indicative of general trends, but further research and development of the model are needed to reduce uncertainties
Eirik Resch; Rolf André Bohne; Trond Kvamsdal; Jardar Lohne. Impact of Urban Density and Building Height on Energy Use in Cities. Energy Procedia 2016, 96, 800 -814.
AMA StyleEirik Resch, Rolf André Bohne, Trond Kvamsdal, Jardar Lohne. Impact of Urban Density and Building Height on Energy Use in Cities. Energy Procedia. 2016; 96 ():800-814.
Chicago/Turabian StyleEirik Resch; Rolf André Bohne; Trond Kvamsdal; Jardar Lohne. 2016. "Impact of Urban Density and Building Height on Energy Use in Cities." Energy Procedia 96, no. : 800-814.