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Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2023) | Viewed by 19030

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesca Pagliaro

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Department Unit for Energy Efficiency - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (DUEE - ENEA), Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome, Italy
Interests: buildings; energy efficiency; energy certification; energy performance certificates; EPBD standards; building simulation; NZEB; sustainable architecture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Marco Morini

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Guest Editor

Department Unit for Energy Efficiency - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (DUEE - ENEA), Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome, Italy
Interests: building; sustainable architecture; zero energy buildings; built environment; sustainability; construction; energy efficiency; renewable energy; building materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Giovanni Murano

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Guest Editor

Italian Thermotechnical Committee Energy & Environment – CTI, 20154 Milano, Italy
Interests: zero energy building; building simulation; climatic data for energy applications; cost-optimal methodology; energy performance of buildings; energy certification of buildings; building envelope; EPBD standards

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, increasingly ambitious goals and strategies have been established at the international level to target climate change. The building sector is of strategic relevance in this regard, as it accounts for about 40% of total energy consumption. Several policies have been established to set requirements to decrease the energy need of the building stock. In recent initiatives, the focus is shifting more decidedly to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and the optimization of the whole life-cycle environmental performance of the building. This latter encompasses a much larger set of performance aspects, from the operational to the embodied energy of systems and materials.

Energy performance has often been considered separately from the environmental aspect during the evaluation of the strategies to be applied to the building. The consequence of this approach may be the reduction in the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions only related to the operational stage of the building life-cycle, but regardless of other stages (e.g., production, maintenance, dismission/recycling of materials, systems, and of the whole building itself, etc.).

For a fully decarbonized and green building stock, it is necessary to move to a more holistic approach, which also entails the embodied energy and emissions during all stages of building life. One of the tools to evaluate, communicate and address the environmental impacts, including the global warming potential, of a building throughout its life cycle (from cradle to grave) is the life-cycle assessment (LCA).

In this context, this Special Issue encourages contributions to the analysis of the built environment through a life-cycle approach for the evaluation of energy performance and greenhouse-gas emissions as well as other LCA-related impacts (water and resource depletion, air and water pollution, etc.). Evaluations from the LCA perspective of the current energy strategies and policies are also welcome, to investigate how and how much they are impacting decarbonization goals, starting from single building components to local requirements for low-energy buildings. One of the goals is to identify suitable solutions and future research directions to integrate life-cycle thinking and circularity principles in the construction of the new buildings and the refurbishment of the existing stock. We encourage colleagues to submit original research articles, short communications, and reviews dealing with (but not limited to) the following topics:

Life-cycle assessment of products, buildings, and districts;
Sustainable materials and construction;
Renewable energy for buildings and districts;
Circularity in the construction sector;
Green building construction;
Sustainable refurbishment;
Energy and environmental indicators;
Environmental performance of buildings;
Requirements for zero-emission buildings;
LCA methodologies and databases (also including building information modelling);
Case studies at component, building, and urban scales;
Economic performance assessment of buildings (life-cycle cost, LCC).

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Francesca Pagliaro
Dr. Marco Morini
Dr. Giovanni Murano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

LCA
energy efficiency
energy performance of buildings
decarbonization
zero-emission buildings
green buildings
energy and environmental policies

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 2360 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Life Cycle Assessment for Photovoltaic Structures—Comparative Study of Rooftop and Free-Field PV Applications

by Anna Neumüller, Stefan Geier and Doris Österreicher

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13692; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813692 - 13 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1218

Abstract

The European Union has set itself the goal of increasing its share in renewable energy up to 42.5% by 2030 by accelerating the clean energy transition plan. National legislation within the Member States must now adapt the strategic plans to rapidly implement their allocation in renewable energy. Solar photovoltaics are in this context considered to be one of the technologies that could rapidly be rolled out, with both building-integrated as well as free-field photovoltaic systems needed to reach these ambitious goals. There are strong arguments for prioritizing photovoltaics on buildings, as they make use of land that is already sealed, and the environmental impact is considered lower as fewer resources might be needed for the structures holding the panels. However, since there is limited literature available to back this claim with quantitative data, this paper presents a comparative study of the structures needed to implement rooftop versus free-field photovoltaic applications. With a detailed life cycle analysis, several commonly used structures have been analyzed in relation to their environmental impact. The findings show that the impact on resources can be up to 50% lower in rooftop systems compared with free-field applications but that a series of site- and material-related factors need to be considered to prioritize one system over another on a regional scale. This study thus aims at providing fact-based decision support for strategic considerations related to photovoltaic implementation plans. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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39 pages, 6151 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of Maker Movement on the Urban Resilience Development: Assessment Methodology and Analysis of EU Research and Innovation Projects

by Lina Monaco and Carlos Herce

Sustainability 2023, 15(17), 12856; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151712856 - 25 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1904

Abstract

Cities are the engine of human development, and increasing urban sustainability is crucial to ensure human prosperity. The development of smart cities generally increases the sustainability of the cities. However, technical and environmental aspects are generally developed in smart cities neglecting socio-economic dimensions. The urban resilience concept includes the complex interactions of environmental, economic, and societal pillars. In this context, the emerging maker movement proposes an economic paradigm shift, with the interaction of humans and technology at the center of urban evolution. This paper proposes a multi-criteria methodology to define and assess the main characteristics of the resilient approach of the projects involving maker practices applied to urban development. The proposed methodology is based on the application of computer-assisted qualitative text analysis and a subsequent classification according to 12 indicators (community and urban efficiency, co-creation and professional, making sense and problem-solving, network and site-specific, implementation and optimization, sustainability-oriented and market-oriented) that define different dimensions of a bottom-up project’s resilient approach in three main key principles: inclusiveness, complexity, and durability. The method has been tested in 94 EU-funded projects. This analysis reveals the evolution and orientation of EU-funded projects from economic, technical, and social perspectives. Specifically, the patterns of remediation of non-participatory practices, the weak presence of open innovation initiatives, and the development of activities focusing on co-creation as a participatory tool. The applied methodology could be subsequently implemented at different scales and integrated with LCA in order to evaluate the sustainability of bottom-up projects toward urban development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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30 pages, 4347 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Developing a New Data-Driven LCA Tool at the Urban Scale: The Case of the Embodied Environmental Profile of the Building Sector

by Jacopo Famiglietti, Hicham Madioum and Mario Motta

Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11518; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511518 - 25 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1124

Abstract

Given the ambitious climate reduction targets of the European Commission for the building sector and the adoption of the life cycle assessment method for the environmental metrics, the authors of this research present a new tool that allows for an extensive evaluation of buildings (operational and embodied environmental profile). The tool developed is an engine written in Python that was applied to analyze the buildings of Milan, using several open databases available for the Lombardy region (Northern Italy). Approximately 240,000 building units were investigated and compared using ecoinvent 3.9.1 EN 15804 as a background library and characterization methods in compliance with EN 15978. The tool can establish reliable environmental benchmarks to implement building policies, such as climate footprint limits for new constructions as required by the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2023). This article shows the embodied impact of construction materials. The results for residential, commercial, and retail building units (old and new) are 15 kg CO₂ eq/(m² of net area × year) for the entire building stock (old and new building units) and 21 kg CO₂ eq/(m² of net area × year) for new buildings (nearly zero energy building units). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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33 pages, 5888 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Systems for Deep Low-Carbon Renovation

by Fabrizio M. Amoruso and Thorsten Schuetze

Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9460; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129460 - 12 Jun 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1793

Abstract

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems can achieve high yields through high percentages of building envelope surface coverage associated with material savings by substituting conventional building envelope components and avoiding land-use change to install open-land PV installations. This article discusses the life cycle assessment (LCA) and the life cycle costing (LCC) of BIPV systems in timber-hybrid building extensions and envelope renovation systems of three exemplary buildings in the Republic of Korea: apartment, mixed-use commercial/industrial, and low-rise multi-unit residential. The BIPV system’s electricity production was quantified with simulation tools. Minimum and average carbon LCAs were calculated using a global product inventory database for 50 years. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings by substituting conventional energy supplies were calculated based on the associated primary energy demands. LCC calculations were based on international datasets for BIPV LCC for 25 and 50 years. As a result, the BIPV system-associated GHG emissions can be decreased by up to 30% with a payback time of 12 (apartment) to 41 (mixed-use building) years for buildings with full PV coverage. The positive cumulative net present value (NPV) for both LCC scenarios encourages economic investments in building renovations with BIPV systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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19 pages, 990 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of Building Materials in the European Residential Building Stock: An Analysis at EU27 Level

by Claudio Zandonella Callegher, Gianluca Grazieschi, Eric Wilczynski , Ulrich Filippi Oberegger and Simon Pezzutto

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8840; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118840 - 30 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1689

Abstract

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption in the building sector requires not only improving the energy efficiency of buildings but also minimising material requirements, embodied emissions, and waste generation. Circular Economy (CE) principles can be applied to minimize resource extraction and waste generation in the building industry. However, to implement effective CE strategies, quantification and evaluation of materials accumulated in buildings are required. This study aims to provide accurate data and a detailed analysis of the materials available in the EU27 residential building sector. By elaborating the data provided by the H2020 European projects Hotmaps and AmBIENCe, the different materials used for floors, roofs, walls, windows, and insulation layers in single-family houses, multifamily houses, and apartment blocks in the different construction periods were quantified for each EU27 country. Considering results at the EU27 level, concrete and brick characterize the largest part of the European residential building stock, whereas materials such as wood and different types of rock are used in much more limited amounts. These results form the basis for policymakers to monitor the status of the residential building sector, evaluate the potential of CE policies at a national level, and assess the environmental impact of building practices through lifecycle assessment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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20 pages, 3002 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ecological Footprint Assessment of Concrete: Partial Replacement of Cement by Water Treatment Sludge and Stone Dust

by Yakub Ansari, Dilawar Husain, Umesh Kumar Das, Jyotirmoy Haloi, Nasar Ahmad Khan, Ravi Prakash and Mujahid Husain

Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7512; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097512 - 04 May 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1574

Abstract

Currently, most concrete industries use conventional cement (Ordinary Portland Cement) as a binding material which involves natural resource depletion, colossal CO₂ emissions, and a huge energy supply. The present study addresses this critical issue by using stone dust (sun-dried and calcinated) and water treatment sludge (sun-dried and calcinated) to replace cement partly in M20-grade concrete production. The environmental impact of ready-mixed concrete (RMC) production with conventional cement and partially replaced cement by other cementitious material, i.e., stone dust and water treatment sludge in concrete, is assessed through ecological footprint (EF) indicator. Moreover, a novel sustainability index is proposed for ready-mixed concrete plants to scale the environmental impact of different types of concrete (or grades) on the sustainability scale (environmental, social, and economic sustainability). The results showed that the sun-dried water treatment sludge and sun-dried stone dust could effectively replace cement (15% by weight) in the concrete, with a comparable compressive strength over the M20 ready-mixed concrete. The EF of conventional M20 RMC is estimated to be 0.02295 gha/m³. The EF of concrete (with sun-dried water treatment sludge) is reduced by 13.14% of the conventional ready-mixed concrete. The Ecological Sustainability Index (ESI) of the ready-mixed concrete plant is estimated to be 718.42 $/gha. Using water treatment sludge and stone dust in concrete production can be an innovative solution because it simultaneously solves the problem of waste disposal, large carbon emissions, cost, and high environmental impact. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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24 pages, 7677 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Neighborhood-Level LCA and Hotspot Analysis of Embodied Emissions of a New Urban Area in Reykjavík

by Hjördís Sóley Sigurðardóttir, Jukka Heinonen, Ólafur Ögmundarson and Áróra Árnadóttir

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5327; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065327 - 17 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1623

Abstract

The built environment sector causes significant climate change impacts, which indicates an opportunity for the sector to be of great importance in reducing its global impact. The main strategy has focused on urban density and transport as well as studying the emissions caused by buildings with life-cycle assessments (LCAs). However, a holistic approach is often missing, where life-cycle environmental impacts are assessed, and goals are considered at the planning stage. This study proposes LCA on a neighborhood scale for a holistic approach and to identify how LCA can be used to reduce impacts when designing and for decision-making at the planning stage. The focus is on the pre-use phase because that phase has been proven to cause a significant spike in carbon emissions when considering the near future and is crucial in reaching climate goals. The study case is a new neighborhood plan in Reykjavík, Iceland. The assessment focuses on the climate change impact of building a new neighborhood. The study identifies materials as a key factor. It demonstrates how the total emissions of the neighborhood are reduced when more environmentally friendly materials are replaced by traditional ones. It reduces GHG emissions by up to 40% in total. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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22 pages, 2688 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Integration of Energy Simulations and Life Cycle Assessment in Building Refurbishment: An Affordability Comparison of Thermal Insulation Materials through a New Sustainability Index

by Flavio Scrucca and Domenico Palladino

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1412; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021412 - 11 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3450

Abstract

Energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction have become two of the most important issues to address in fighting climate change. Focused strategies have been implemented aiming at reducing the energy consumption of buildings since it is one of the most energy-intensive sectors, but they are mainly concerned with energy reduction without considering their environmental impact. The present work therefore aims at assessing the energy and environmental impacts of the use of insulation materials for building envelope refurbishment as the thermal coating. Reference buildings were used to perform energy simulations in representative cities of Italy and energy and environmental impacts of the most common and sustainable insulation materials were thus evaluated. Relevant outcomes have been focused on defining a new Economic and Environmental Sustainability Index (EESI) capable of considering both economic and environmental aspects; particularly, sustainable materials (such as cellulose fiber) can have the same affordability as traditional ones (such as polystyrene foam slab, glass wool, or stone wool) if environmental impact is also taken into account, despite their higher cost. However, according to EESI, the affordability of traditional insulation materials remains evident in the warmest climatic zones because of the lower energy needs of buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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20 pages, 3664 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

The Use of Environmental Product Declarations of Construction Products as a Data Source to Conduct a Building Life-Cycle Assessment in Spain

by Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer, Elisabetta Palumbo, Carmen Llatas, Álvaro Velasco Acevedo, María Dolores Fernández Galvéz, Endrit Hoxha and Alexander Passer

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1284; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021284 - 10 Jan 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2403

Abstract

The Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) method and the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) each play a crucial role in reducing buildings’ embodied environmental impacts. EPDs provide the validated and geographically representative data necessary to conduct an LCA. However, the development of EPDs in the European context is still irregular. Countries such as Germany and France have many EPDs for construction products, while other countries, such as Spain, have a limited number of EPDs and more than one operator programme, which is pointed out in the literature as a possible limiting factor for comparing results. This study aimed to examine the use of construction product EPDs manufactured in Spain, to then use as a data source to conduct a building LCA. We analysed the comparability of the results among the different EPD programmes and investigated to what extent the use of Spainߣs geographically representative construction product EPDs can contribute to conducting a building LCA, including all the materials and products that compose a building, and covering all the building life-cycle stages (product, construction, use, and end-of-life). The results showed that plasterboard and thermal insulation products have the highest numbers of EPDs in different EPD programmes. The case study analysis showed that 20% of the construction products that compose a building can potentially use these EPDs as a data source to conduct a building LCA, and 89% of those product categories include at least the product, use, or end-of-life stage modules. Finally, recommendations and challenges to improve LCA development in the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation industries were included. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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Review

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16 pages, 2970 KiB

Open AccessReview

Towards Sustainability Assessment of the Built Environment: A Classification of the Existing Challenges

by Hashem Amini Toosi, Monica Lavagna, Fabrizio Leonforte, Claudio Del Pero and Niccolò Aste

Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 12055; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151512055 - 07 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1064

Abstract

The application of sustainability assessment in a decision context is associated with various challenges that explain why the transition to action-oriented knowledge still needs to be fulfilled. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the associated challenges in sustainability assessment in the decision context of the built environment. Several publications are reviewed to provide a systemic understanding of the associated complexities. The challenges in sustainability assessment in the built environment are categorized at different levels, from understanding to measurement and implementation. The challenges are further categorized into definition, context, interpretation, data, measurement methods, uncertainties, indicators and indices, results, coordination, conflicts, and action-oriented knowledge. Moreover, according to the nature of each challenge, they are classified into epistemological, methodological, and procedural challenges. The novelty of this review is that it reviews and reports almost all fragmentedly reported challenges in sustainability assessment of the built environment in the literature within a holistic framework that provides a clear understanding of the state of the art and second discusses them within an integrated framework (the Sustainability Assessment Network) including the position of active-role players to resolve them, including strategists, scientist, and stakeholders. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Construction of Green Building and Energy Assessment Using a Life Cycle Approach)

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