Abstract
Greening the building envelope focusing on green facades with vegetation is a good example of a new construction practice. Plants and partly growing materials in case of green wall systems (GWS) have a number of functions that are beneficial, for example: increasing the biodiversity and ecological value, mitigation of urban heat island effect, outdoor and indoor comfort, insulating properties, improve of air quality and of the social and psychological well-being of city dwellers. This paper discusses a comparative life cycle analysis (LCA) for: a conventional built up brick facade, a facade greened directly, a facade greened indirectly (supported by a steel mesh), a facade covered with a green wall system based on planter boxes and a facade covered with a green wall system based on felt layers. Beside the environmental benefits of the above described greening systems, it is eventually not clear if these systems are sustainable, due to the materials used, maintenance, nutrients and water needed. A LCA is used to analyze the similarity and differences in the environmental impacts in relation with benefits estimated for two climate types for building energy saving (reduction of electrical energy used for building cooling and heating).
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