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Comparison of different building shells − life cycle assessment
Author(s) -
Rixrath Doris,
Wartha Christian
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
integrated environmental assessment and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1551-3793
pISSN - 1551-3777
DOI - 10.1002/ieam.1760
Subject(s) - demolition , life cycle assessment , environmental impact assessment , demolition waste , renewable energy , incineration , european union , engineering , waste management , civil engineering , business , environmental planning , environmental science , environmental economics , production (economics) , political science , electrical engineering , law , economics , macroeconomics , economic policy
The Renewable Energy and Efficiency Action (REACT) project is a European Union–funded cross‐border cooperative venture featuring the participation of companies and researchers from the Austrian state of Burgenland and western Slovakia that is developing zero‐energy concepts for newly built single‐family homes. A variety of building structures are defined for family houses, and the different impacts they have on the environment are evaluated over the entire life cycle. This paper aims to compare the environmental impacts of different building shells during both the construction and the demolition phases. However, the operation phase of the building is not evaluated. One of the findings of the project thus far is that the demolition and disposal of building materials should be included in any such evaluation. For some environmental impact assessment categories, both demolition and disposal are important. The environmental impacts of various end‐of‐life scenarios can differ greatly based on the disposal method (e.g., landfill, incineration, recycling) chosen and on the proportion of recycled content. Furthermore, the results show that manufacturing building materials from renewable resources can have strong environmental impacts, particularly when substantial amounts of fossil fuel are required in their production. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016;12:437–444. © 2016 SETAC