Abstract
Buildings are the key components of urban areas and society as a complex system. A life cycle assessment was applied to estimate the environmental impacts of the resources applied in the building envelope, floor slabs, and interior walls of the Vættaskóli-Engi building in Reykjavik, Iceland. The scope of this study included four modules of extraction and transportation of raw material to the manufacturing site, production of the construction materials, and transport to the building site, as described in the standard EN 15804. The total environmental effects of the school building in terms of global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, human toxicity, acidification, and eutrophication were calculated. The total global warming potential impact was equal to 255 kg of CO2 eq/sqm, which was low compared to previous studies and was due to the limited system boundary of the current study. The effect of long-distance overseas transport of materials was noticeable in terms of acidification (25%) and eutrophication (31%) while it was negligible in other impact groups. The results also concluded that producing the cement in Iceland caused less environmental impact in all five impact categories compared to the case in which the cement was imported from Germany. The major contribution of this work is that the environmental impacts of different plans for domestic production or import of construction materials to Iceland can be precisely assessed in order to identify effective measures to move towards a sustainable built environment in Iceland, and also to provide consistent insights for stakeholders.
Highlights
The building and construction sectors are key sectors for sustainable development
The major contribution of this work is that the environmental impacts of different plans for domestic production or import of construction materials to Iceland can be precisely assessed in order to identify effective measures to move towards a sustainable built environment in Iceland, and to provide consistent insights for stakeholders
Buildings 2016, 6, 46 regardless of the drop in the total life cycle energy, the results demonstrate a growing portion of embodied energy from traditional to nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) that could reach up to 50%
Summary
The building and construction sectors are key sectors for sustainable development. While the building industry generates 5% to 15% of the global GDP, the built environment is responsible for one-third of the total final energy use and half of worldwide electricity consumption, as well as one-third of global carbon emissions [1,2]. According to the latest IPCC report [3], the energy use and related emissions from buildings can double or possibly even triple until 2050 as a result of several key trends, including growth in population, relocation to urban areas, changes in family size, rising levels of affluence, and behavioral changes. The main focuses of the European Performance Building Directive (EPBD) 2010/31/EU [4], and the Energy Efficiency. Directive (2012/27/EU) [5] were to concentrate efforts towards better insulation, more efficient HVAC systems, and more use of sustainable energy. In the review of Chastas et al [6], the embodied energy in residential buildings, including traditional, passive, and nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB), Buildings 2016, 6, 46; doi:10.3390/buildings6040046 www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
