Abstract
Because the reduction in environmental impacts (EIs) of buildings using life-cycle assessment (LCA) has been emphasized as a practical strategy for the sustainable development of the construction industry, studies are required to analyze not only the operational environmental impacts (OEIs) of buildings, but also the embodied environmental impacts (EEIs) of building materials. This study aims to analyze the EEIs of Korean apartment buildings on the basis of major building materials as part of research with the goal of reducing the EIs of buildings. For this purpose, six types of building materials (ready-mixed concrete, reinforcement steel, concrete bricks, glass, insulation, and gypsum) for apartment buildings were selected as major building materials, and their inputs per unit area according to the structure types and plans of apartment buildings were derived by analyzing the design and bills of materials of 443 apartment buildings constructed in South Korea. In addition, a life-cycle scenario including the production, construction, maintenance, and end-of-life stage was constructed for each major building material. The EEIs of the apartment buildings were quantitatively assessed by applying the life-cycle inventory database (LCI DB) and the Korean life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method based on damage-oriented modeling (KOLID), and the results were analyzed.
Highlights
With the rising importance of sustainable development, efforts have been made in all industrial areas to reduce environmental impacts (EIs) [1,2,3,4,5]
The purpose of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts (EEIs) of Korean apartment buildings on the basis of major building materials as part of research with the goal of reducing the life-cycle environmental impacts (LCEIs) of buildings
The results are summarized as follows: 1. The life-cycle embodied environmental impact (LCEEI) of apartment buildings according to structure types and plans were assessed using 443 apartment buildings in South Korea, and the results were analyzed from the perspectives of total EIs, building life-cycle stages, major construction materials, and safety guards
Summary
With the rising importance of sustainable development, efforts have been made in all industrial areas to reduce environmental impacts (EIs) [1,2,3,4,5]. As technologies to reduce the OEIs of buildings have been commercialized, research on the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings—which considers the reduction in the OEIs of buildings as well as in the embodied environmental impacts (EEIs) caused by the production, construction, maintenance, and end-of-life stages of the building materials used—has been emphasized recently [16,17,18,19,20,21,22] This is because additional building materials may be necessary for energy-efficient buildings compared with conventional buildings, increasing EEIs, but decreasing OEIs [17]. EIPS, EICS, EIMP, and EIES are the EEIs of the building-material production stage, and the building construction, maintenance, and end-of-life stages
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