This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Unclaimed
Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade
Graz University of Technology, Institute of Technology and Testing of Construction Materials, Working Group Sustainable Construction, Graz, Austria

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

The user biography is not available.
Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Building components and buildings
Published: 12 May 2021 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Purpose A detailed assessment of the environmental impacts of the building requires a substantial amount of data that is time- and effort-consuming. However, limitation of the system boundary to certain materials and components can provide misleading impact calculation. In order to calculate the error gap between detailed and simplified assessments, the purpose of this article is to present a detailed calculation of the environmental impacts of the building by including in the system boundary, the technical, and electrical equipment. Method To that end, the environmental impacts of a laboratory and research building situated in Graz-Austria are assessed following the EN-15978 norm. Within the system boundaries of the study, the material and components of building fabric, technical, and electronic equipment for the building lifecycle stages of production, construction, replacement, operational energy and water, and end-of-life are considered. The input data regarding the quantity of materials is collected from the design and tendering documents, invoices, and from discussion with the head of the building’s construction site. Primary energy and global warming potential indicators are calculated on the basis of a functional unit of 1 m2 of energy reference area (ERA) per year, considering a reference building service life of 50 years. Results and discussion The primary energy indicator of the building is equal to 1698 MJ/m2 ERA/year. The embodied impacts are found to be responsible for 28% of which 6.4% is due to technical and electronic equipment. Furthermore, the embodied impacts for the global warming potential, equal to 28.3 kg CO2e/m2 ERA/year, are responsible for 73%. Together, technical and electrical equipment are the largest responsible aspects, accounting for 38% of the total impacts. Simplified and detailed result comparisons show a gap of 29% and 7.7% for global warming and primary energy indicators. These differences were from the embodied impacts and largely from the exclusion of electrical equipment from the study’s system boundary. Conclusions Technical and electrical equipment present a significant contribution to the overall environmental impacts of the building. Worthy of inclusion in the system boundary of the study, the environmental impacts of technical and electrical equipment must be calculated in detail or considered with a reliable ratio in the early design phase of the project. Further research is necessary to address the detailed impact calculation of the equipment and notably the minimization of their impacts.

ACS Style

E. Hoxha; D. Maierhofer; M.R.M Saade; A. Passer. Influence of technical and electrical equipment in life cycle assessments of buildings: case of a laboratory and research building. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2021, 26, 852 -863.

AMA Style

E. Hoxha, D. Maierhofer, M.R.M Saade, A. Passer. Influence of technical and electrical equipment in life cycle assessments of buildings: case of a laboratory and research building. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2021; 26 (5):852-863.

Chicago/Turabian Style

E. Hoxha; D. Maierhofer; M.R.M Saade; A. Passer. 2021. "Influence of technical and electrical equipment in life cycle assessments of buildings: case of a laboratory and research building." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 26, no. 5: 852-863.

Journal article
Published: 12 August 2020 in Buildings and Cities
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Endrit Hoxha; Alexander Passer; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Damien Trigaux; Amie Shuttleworth; Francesco Pittau; Karen Allacker; Guillaume Habert. Biogenic carbon in buildings: a critical overview of LCA methods. Buildings and Cities 2020, 1, 504 -524.

AMA Style

Endrit Hoxha, Alexander Passer, Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Damien Trigaux, Amie Shuttleworth, Francesco Pittau, Karen Allacker, Guillaume Habert. Biogenic carbon in buildings: a critical overview of LCA methods. Buildings and Cities. 2020; 1 (1):504-524.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Endrit Hoxha; Alexander Passer; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Damien Trigaux; Amie Shuttleworth; Francesco Pittau; Karen Allacker; Guillaume Habert. 2020. "Biogenic carbon in buildings: a critical overview of LCA methods." Buildings and Cities 1, no. 1: 504-524.

Journal article
Published: 28 November 2019 in Applied Energy
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Buildings are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contributors to the climate crisis. To meet climate-change mitigation needs, one must go beyond operational energy consumption and related GHG emissions of buildings and address their full life cycle. This study investigates the global trends of GHG emissions arising across the life cycle of buildings by systematically compiling and analysing more than 650 life cycle assessment (LCA) case studies. The results, presented for different energy performance classes based on a final sample of 238 cases, show a clear reduction trend in life cycle GHG emissions due to improved operational energy performance. However, the analysis reveals an increase in relative and absolute contributions of so‐called ‘embodied’ GHG emissions, i.e., emissions arising from manufacturing and processing of building materials. While the average share of embodied GHG emissions from buildings following current energy performance regulations is approximately 20–25% of life cycle GHG emissions, this figure escalates to 45–50% for highly energy-efficient buildings and surpasses 90% in extreme cases. Furthermore, this study analyses GHG emissions at time of occurrence, highlighting the ‘carbon spike’ from building production. Relating the results to existing benchmarks for buildings’ GHG emissions in the Swiss SIA energy efficiency path shows that most cases exceed the target of 11.0 kgCO2eq/m2a. Considering global GHG reduction targets, these results emphasize the urgent need to reduce GHG emissions of buildings by optimizing both operational and embodied impacts. The analysis further confirmed a need for improving transparency and comparability of LCA studies.

ACS Style

Martin Röck; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maria Balouktsi; Freja Nygaard Rasmussen; Harpa Birgisdottir; Rolf Frischknecht; Guillaume Habert; Thomas Lützkendorf; Alexander Passer. Embodied GHG emissions of buildings – The hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation. Applied Energy 2019, 258, 114107 .

AMA Style

Martin Röck, Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Maria Balouktsi, Freja Nygaard Rasmussen, Harpa Birgisdottir, Rolf Frischknecht, Guillaume Habert, Thomas Lützkendorf, Alexander Passer. Embodied GHG emissions of buildings – The hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation. Applied Energy. 2019; 258 ():114107.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Martin Röck; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maria Balouktsi; Freja Nygaard Rasmussen; Harpa Birgisdottir; Rolf Frischknecht; Guillaume Habert; Thomas Lützkendorf; Alexander Passer. 2019. "Embodied GHG emissions of buildings – The hidden challenge for effective climate change mitigation." Applied Energy 258, no. : 114107.

Review article
Published: 09 October 2019 in Journal of Cleaner Production
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Previously perceived as a rapid prototyping technique, additive manufacturing (AM) has evolved into a fully developed manufacturing process, with growing accessibility to different industrial sectors. Its technological and economic advantages are frequently documented, but AM’s environmental performance is seldom investigated. Not long ago discrete initiatives to assess AM’s applicability for building large-scale structures started to arise. Mostly focused on technical and economic feasibility, these studies pave the way for the process’s consolidation in the construction sector. This paper aims to systematically and critically assess the available literature on AM’s life cycle environmental impacts and to identify the main challenges and trends on loads measurements. The findings help feed recommendations to perform life cycle assessments (LCA) in AM initiatives, with a special focus on the construction sector. A systematic search led to the careful analysis of 52 papers, out of 353 that matched our search protocol. In terms of LCA methods’ robustness, a lack of transparency stood out in many papers, suggesting that authors were most likely non-LCA experts, applying the tool without much knowledge of requirements and modelling intricacies. In terms of documented global warming potential (GWP) values in comparison to conventional manufacturing (CM), AM processes were portrayed as beneficial in most cases. Most papers documented results ranges, which represented different printing, production or distribution strategies, in which AM’s performance varied considerably. LCA played a significant role in finding an optimum production approach and seems to be a valuable lens to assure 3D printing’s environmental competitiveness. A contribution analysis showed that there is a shift between materials vs. production processes contribution in the life cycle GWP loads of systems manufactured with AM and CM. 3D printing processes account for almost 80% of AM’s total GWP, while for CM that position is held by the material-related loads. For construction related AM processes, the material intensity is, however, still by far the largest contributor to building systems’ GWP, maintaining the impact distribution as in typical manufacturing processes.

ACS Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Ammar Yahia; Ben Amor. How has LCA been applied to 3D printing? A systematic literature review and recommendations for future studies. Journal of Cleaner Production 2019, 244, 118803 .

AMA Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Ammar Yahia, Ben Amor. How has LCA been applied to 3D printing? A systematic literature review and recommendations for future studies. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2019; 244 ():118803.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Ammar Yahia; Ben Amor. 2019. "How has LCA been applied to 3D printing? A systematic literature review and recommendations for future studies." Journal of Cleaner Production 244, no. : 118803.

Review article
Published: 04 October 2019 in Building and Environment
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Buildings are responsible for a considerable portion of the embodied and operational CO2 emitted by human activities. Some building attributes have taken on the mantle of “environmentally preferable”. Through a systematic literature review, this paper investigates if the literature on whole building Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) confirms some environmental assumptions that are perceived as always truthful, e.g. (i) “wood is better than concrete and steel”, (ii) ”renovation is preferable to demolishing and building anew”, and (iii)“operational loads are more intensive than embodied loads”. The search also allowed to trace if advanced methodological modelling in LCA brings new insights into the mentioned perceptions. The assessment of over 250 case studies pointed that LCAs applied to complex systems, such as a building, embed crucial issues to be modeled, and rules of thumb lose veracity. Furthermore, as LCA incorporates deepened mathematical models, outcomes become less predictable, and paradigms should be interpreted with care.

ACS Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Geoffrey Guest; Ben Amor. Comparative whole building LCAs: How far are our expectations from the documented evidence? Building and Environment 2019, 167, 106449 .

AMA Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Geoffrey Guest, Ben Amor. Comparative whole building LCAs: How far are our expectations from the documented evidence? Building and Environment. 2019; 167 ():106449.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Geoffrey Guest; Ben Amor. 2019. "Comparative whole building LCAs: How far are our expectations from the documented evidence?" Building and Environment 167, no. : 106449.

Review
Published: 12 August 2018 in Buildings
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Globally, the building sector is responsible for more than 40% of energy use and it contributes approximately 30% of the global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This high contribution stimulates research and policies to reduce the operational energy use and related GHG emissions of buildings. However, the environmental impacts of buildings can extend wide beyond the operational phase, and the portion of impacts related to the embodied energy of the building becomes relatively more important in low energy buildings. Therefore, the goal of the research is gaining insights into the environmental impacts of various building strategies for energy efficiency requirements compared to the life cycle environmental impacts of the whole building. The goal is to detect and investigate existing trade-offs in current approaches and solutions proposed by the research community. A literature review is driven by six fundamental and specific research questions (RQs), and performed based on two main tasks: (i) selection of literature studies, and (ii) critical analysis of the selected studies in line with the RQs. A final sample of 59 papers and 178 case studies has been collected, and key criteria are systematically analysed in a matrix. The study reveals that the high heterogeneity of the case studies makes it difficult to compare these in a straightforward way, but it allows to provide an overview of current methodological challenges and research gaps. Furthermore, the most complete studies provide valuable insights in the environmental benefits of the identified energy performance strategies over the building life cycle, but also shows the risk of burden shifting if only operational energy use is focused on, or when a limited number of environmental impact categories are assessed.

ACS Style

Nadia Mirabella; Martin Röck; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Carolin Spirinckx; Marc Bosmans; Karen Allacker; Alexander Passer. Strategies to Improve the Energy Performance of Buildings: A Review of Their Life Cycle Impact. Buildings 2018, 8, 105 .

AMA Style

Nadia Mirabella, Martin Röck, Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Carolin Spirinckx, Marc Bosmans, Karen Allacker, Alexander Passer. Strategies to Improve the Energy Performance of Buildings: A Review of Their Life Cycle Impact. Buildings. 2018; 8 (8):105.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nadia Mirabella; Martin Röck; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Carolin Spirinckx; Marc Bosmans; Karen Allacker; Alexander Passer. 2018. "Strategies to Improve the Energy Performance of Buildings: A Review of Their Life Cycle Impact." Buildings 8, no. 8: 105.

Journal article
Published: 01 August 2018 in Energy and Buildings
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Achieving low operational energy (OE) consumption in high heating and cooling situations typically leads to well-insulated buildings. In those cases, embodied energy (EE) can exceed the operational share. Specific literature refers mostly to heating-dominated residential buildings, with a clear focus on European, Asian, and North American countries. Information on embodied impacts of buildings other regions is virtually inexistent. This paper aims at estimating lifecycle energy and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions of selected design versions of a photovoltaic-powered Living Lab in Campinas, Brazil; and at finding the embodied-to-operational impact ratios as well as the main contributors to those overall impacts. Homer Energy software supported sizing of photovoltaic (PV) arrays for ten energy compensation scenarios to, based on simulated OE, determine the feasibility threshold for onsite generation admitted by the building design. We then modelled lifecycle energy and GHG emissions for the net zero (NZE) and threshold energy positive (E+) versions of the case study design. The Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and the CML 2001 v.2.05 methods supported embodied energy and global warming potential (GWP) calculations in SimaPro 7.3. The E+ building compensates its OE plus non-renewable energy embodied in building products. Steel frame and partitions were the largest contributors to EEG in building products, whilst the insulated façade panels and PV array performed key energy performance roles at comparatively lower embodied impacts. Shifting from NZE towards E+ status discretely increased the embodied-to-operational energy ratio (EE:OE), at similar embodied-to-operational GHG emissions (EG:OG) ratios. Pre-use share of lifecycle CED was slightly surpassed by the operational one, whilst responding for 60% of lifecycle GWP. Material replacement over the reference service life contributed significantly to operational impacts. EOL treatment had negligible effect on lifecycle impacts. EE more than tripled OE and embodied emissions exceeded OG by a factor of seven. EEG prominence confirms the crucial need for a harmonized calculation approach, as experienced for operational stage accountancy over the recent years. We acknowledge the high uncertainties involved in using simulated over measured OE consumption and in using foreign LCI databases. The former limitation can be solved by monitoring operational performance upon projects completion. This study offers practical and detailed reference for LCA practitioners in all countries facing the latter challenge, which will persist until integrated national LCI databases finally become available.

ACS Style

Vanessa Gomes; Marcella Saade; Bruno Lima; Maristela Silva. Exploring lifecycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions of a case study with ambitious energy compensation goals in a cooling-dominated climate. Energy and Buildings 2018, 173, 302 -314.

AMA Style

Vanessa Gomes, Marcella Saade, Bruno Lima, Maristela Silva. Exploring lifecycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions of a case study with ambitious energy compensation goals in a cooling-dominated climate. Energy and Buildings. 2018; 173 ():302-314.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Vanessa Gomes; Marcella Saade; Bruno Lima; Maristela Silva. 2018. "Exploring lifecycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions of a case study with ambitious energy compensation goals in a cooling-dominated climate." Energy and Buildings 173, no. : 302-314.

Commentary and discussion article
Published: 19 July 2018 in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a data-intensive methodology; therefore, experts usually focus collection efforts on a few activities, while generic data on remaining activities are taken from databases. Even though increased availability of databases has facilitated LCA takeoff, assuring data quality is fundamental to ensure meaningful results and reliable interpretation. Ecoinvent has become a global reference for inventory data. Its current version released three impact partition modeling options—the recycled content, “allocation at the point of substitution” (APOS), and consequential models—whose adequate choice is crucial for yielding meaningful assessments. Tutorials and manuals describe the distribution algorithm that backs each system model, to ground decision-making regarding the best fit to a study’s goals. We performed a systematic literature review to investigate—within the papers published on the International Journal of LCA (IJLCA)—how transparently authors addressed the system model choices. About 70% of LCA practitioners continued to use earlier versions of ecoinvent after version 3 was launched in 2013. The number of papers using versions 3.x only showed an increased growth trend 2 years later. Eighty-three papers actually adopted the newest version of the database. From those, only 29 papers clearly mentioned the adopted system model. Our SLR also suggests a trend regarding authorship profile of LCA-related studies: the number of studies conducted by practitioners aware of the intricacies of sound modeling of background and foreground data might have been surpassed by those conducted by non-LCA specialists who use LCA as a supporting tool for investigations in applied fields, and merely scratch the surface. Our results point to a need for a caveat: ecoinvent users must take time to understand the general concept behind each system model and practice one of the most important actions when performing an LCA—state methodological choices clearly.

ACS Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Vanessa Gomes; Vanessa Silva; Cassia Maria Lie Ugaya; Sébastien Lasvaux; Alexander Passer; Guillaume Habert. Investigating transparency regarding ecoinvent users’ system model choices. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2018, 24, 1 -5.

AMA Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Vanessa Gomes, Vanessa Silva, Cassia Maria Lie Ugaya, Sébastien Lasvaux, Alexander Passer, Guillaume Habert. Investigating transparency regarding ecoinvent users’ system model choices. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 2018; 24 (1):1-5.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Vanessa Gomes; Vanessa Silva; Cassia Maria Lie Ugaya; Sébastien Lasvaux; Alexander Passer; Guillaume Habert. 2018. "Investigating transparency regarding ecoinvent users’ system model choices." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 24, no. 1: 1-5.

Artigos
Published: 01 April 2018 in Ambiente Construído
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Life cycle assessment (LCA) provides a comprehensive framework for positioning low energy and global warming potential alternatives regarding Portland cement and concrete. Published LCA work on alkali-activated cements is, however, relatively limited. In this paper, we illustrate how LCA critically supports concrete technological studies in the search for low impact concrete mixes. Previous research on breakwater applications explored replacing a low-clinker Portland cement and natural aggregates with seven different alkali-activated blast furnace slag (bfs) binder systems and with coarse and granulated bfs aggregates. Its outcome suggested a sodium silicate-activated bfs formulation as the best match between concrete properties and environmental regulation compliance. To validate this outcome through LCA, our cradle to gate assessments followed ISO 14044 (INTERNATIONAL…, 2006b) and used Ecoinvent v.2.2 and CML baseline 2001 v.2.05. We adopted the ‘net avoided burden approach’ to handle multifunctionality intrinsic to by-product-based AAC. Whilst sodium silicate-activated mixes rivaled the reference regarding GWP, impacts in several categories were increased. LCA highlighted the implications of driving mix selection by focusing on a single environmental impact category.

ACS Style

Maristela Gomes Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade. The contribution of life-cycle assessment to environmentally preferable concrete mix selection for breakwater applications. Ambiente Construído 2018, 18, 413 -429.

AMA Style

Maristela Gomes Da Silva, Vanessa Gomes, Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade. The contribution of life-cycle assessment to environmentally preferable concrete mix selection for breakwater applications. Ambiente Construído. 2018; 18 (2):413-429.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Maristela Gomes Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade. 2018. "The contribution of life-cycle assessment to environmentally preferable concrete mix selection for breakwater applications." Ambiente Construído 18, no. 2: 413-429.

Journal article
Published: 31 December 2017 in PARC Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Construção
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Uma questão controversa em ACV é a escolha do método de distribuição de impactos nos processos multifuncionais, isto é: que geram mais de um produto ou serviço. A ISO 14044:2006 sugere que se tente evitar a alocação, utilizando: (i) divisão do processo multifuncional em dois ou mais subprocessos unitários; ou (ii) expansão do sistema de produto para incluir as funções adicionais relativas aos co-produtos. Caso isto não seja possível, as entradas e saídas do sistema devem ser divididas com base em alguma relação física fundamental entre produtos. Caso a relação física não seja identificada, os fluxos devem ser divididos refletindo outras relações entre produtos, por exemplo, seu valor econômico. Este artigo visa delinear um panorama científico do uso de métodos de distribuição de 2006 a 2016. Para tanto, realizou-se uma revisão sistemática de literatura e documentou-se a frequência de escolha dos métodos nos estudos realizados no período considerado. Os resultados revelaram uma falta de consenso entre praticantes de ACV. A maioria dos estudos adota a abordagem do impacto evitado (equivalente à expansão do sistema), enquanto o primeiro passo proposto pela ISO 14044 (subdivisão) foi o método menos usado. Nossa avaliação confirmou que o problema de distribuição de impactos é tipicamente solucionado de forma contrária ao encaminhamento teórico proposto na norma, sugerindo uma oportunidade de reflexão e reformulação.

ACS Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maristela Gomes Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes Da Silva. Impact distribution methods’ use in multifunctional Life Cycle Assessments: a systematic literature review. PARC Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Construção 2017, 8, 272 -285.

AMA Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Maristela Gomes Da Silva, Vanessa Gomes Da Silva. Impact distribution methods’ use in multifunctional Life Cycle Assessments: a systematic literature review. PARC Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Construção. 2017; 8 (4):272-285.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maristela Gomes Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes Da Silva. 2017. "Impact distribution methods’ use in multifunctional Life Cycle Assessments: a systematic literature review." PARC Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Construção 8, no. 4: 272-285.

Journal article
Published: 01 July 2017 in Journal of Cleaner Production
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Ian-Frederic Häfliger; Viola John; Alexander Passer; Sebastien Lasvaux; Endrit Hoxha; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Guillaume Habert. Buildings environmental impacts' sensitivity related to LCA modelling choices of construction materials. Journal of Cleaner Production 2017, 156, 805 -816.

AMA Style

Ian-Frederic Häfliger, Viola John, Alexander Passer, Sebastien Lasvaux, Endrit Hoxha, Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Guillaume Habert. Buildings environmental impacts' sensitivity related to LCA modelling choices of construction materials. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2017; 156 ():805-816.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ian-Frederic Häfliger; Viola John; Alexander Passer; Sebastien Lasvaux; Endrit Hoxha; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Guillaume Habert. 2017. "Buildings environmental impacts' sensitivity related to LCA modelling choices of construction materials." Journal of Cleaner Production 156, no. : 805-816.

Journal article
Published: 31 August 2014 in Gestão & Tecnologia de Projetos
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maristela Gomes Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes Da Silva. METHODOLOGICAL DISCUSSION AND PILOTING OF LCA-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS FOR PRODUCT STAGE ASSESSMENT OF BRAZILIAN BUILDINGS. Gestão & Tecnologia de Projetos 2014, 9, 43 .

AMA Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Maristela Gomes Da Silva, Vanessa Gomes Da Silva. METHODOLOGICAL DISCUSSION AND PILOTING OF LCA-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS FOR PRODUCT STAGE ASSESSMENT OF BRAZILIAN BUILDINGS. Gestão & Tecnologia de Projetos. 2014; 9 (1):43.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maristela Gomes Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes Da Silva. 2014. "METHODOLOGICAL DISCUSSION AND PILOTING OF LCA-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS FOR PRODUCT STAGE ASSESSMENT OF BRAZILIAN BUILDINGS." Gestão & Tecnologia de Projetos 9, no. 1: 43.

Journal article
Published: 13 May 2014 in Smart and Sustainable Built Environment
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a set of lifecycle-based indicators to describe material eco-efficiency of buildings normalized per unit of gross floor area (GFA), and at verifying feasibility of their calculation for building materials and components, based upon four case studies. The paper also examines the effects that discrepancies between two carbon footprint accounting methods (embodied CO2 (ECO2) vs embodied CO2e) have on communication of environmental performance of selected materials. Design/methodology/approach – The lifecycle assessments (LCAs) were performed through LCA support platform SimaPro 7.3. Data for materials/components production cycle modeling were collected from primary and secondary data from national literature or adapted from Ecoinvent database. Embodied energy, ECO2, blue water footprint (bWF), non-renewable content and volatile organic compound emissions (VOCe) indicators were calculated from lifecycle inventory (LCI) outputs, while embodied CO2e was calculated using CML 2001 v.2.01 impact assessment method. Findings – Obtained results suggest that a core database comprised of 12 materials and components – cement, ceramic blocks, steel rebar, sawn timber planks, PVC tubes, plywood, PVC conduits, roof steel structure, roundwood, ceramic tiles, hydrated lime and adhesive mortar – provides a very reasonable description of a building's embodied energy (99.63 percent), embodied CO2e (97.50 percent), bWF (96.26 percent), non-renewable content (97.53 percent) and VOCe (95.38 percent) profiles. Except for bWF of cement and concrete, substantial reductions in the metrics’ values captured environmental advantages of partially substituting ground granulated blast furnace slag (ggbs) for clinker Portland. Originality/value – The disclosure of embodied energy and carbon, as well as of other environmental performance data at whole-building level (per unit of GFA) pointed out in this paper, allows comparability and helps to establish performance goals and benchmarks and to guide policy decisions. Following a coordinated methodological outline, future works are expected to evolve to gradually constitute a LCI database that enables the use of the proposed metrics and of LCA as decision-making tools in the building sector.

ACS Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maristela G. Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes; Hawllynsgton Gumez Franco; Dimaghi Schwamback; Blandina Lavor. Material eco-efficiency indicators for Brazilian buildings. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment 2014, 3, 54 -71.

AMA Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Maristela G. Da Silva, Vanessa Gomes, Hawllynsgton Gumez Franco, Dimaghi Schwamback, Blandina Lavor. Material eco-efficiency indicators for Brazilian buildings. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment. 2014; 3 (1):54-71.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Maristela G. Da Silva; Vanessa Gomes; Hawllynsgton Gumez Franco; Dimaghi Schwamback; Blandina Lavor. 2014. "Material eco-efficiency indicators for Brazilian buildings." Smart and Sustainable Built Environment 3, no. 1: 54-71.

Journal article
Published: 01 December 2013 in Revista IBRACON de Estruturas e Materiais
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This paper assesses environmental loads of concretes made with Portland blended cements containing different proportions of ground granulated blast furnace slag (ggbs) as clinker replacement and with characteristic compressive strength ranging from 25 to 60 MPa. Impact assessment method CML 2001 v. 2.04 and Life Cycle Assessment platform SimaPro 7.3 respectively supported calculations in terms of environmental impact categories and of a set of life cycle indicators. Service life, estimated via Life 365 v.2.1 software, is tested as a functional unit normalizer for environmental assessment of concrete elements through application to the embodied CO2 indicator. Increased fractions of ggbs in Portland cement reduce concretes' life cycle environmental loads as indicated by all metrics but blue water footprint. Effects of clinker replacement on the indicators are discussed. Service life consideration proved to add coherence to concrete's environmental, functional and technical quality interpretation.

ACS Style

M. G. Silva; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Valeria De Aguiar Gomes. Influence of service life, strength and cement type on life cycle environmental performance of concrete. Revista IBRACON de Estruturas e Materiais 2013, 6, 844 -853.

AMA Style

M. G. Silva, Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade, Valeria De Aguiar Gomes. Influence of service life, strength and cement type on life cycle environmental performance of concrete. Revista IBRACON de Estruturas e Materiais. 2013; 6 (6):844-853.

Chicago/Turabian Style

M. G. Silva; Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade; Valeria De Aguiar Gomes. 2013. "Influence of service life, strength and cement type on life cycle environmental performance of concrete." Revista IBRACON de Estruturas e Materiais 6, no. 6: 844-853.