Environmental life cycle assessment and economic comparison of different roof systems

Abstract

Recently, the negative environmental impacts of the construction industry have been of great concern. Since roofs are a major part of the building components, they may play a significant role in generating environmental pollution. One of the solutions to improve the environment in the construction industry is to attempt to achieve a roof system with minimal environmental impact. In the present work, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of one square meter of concrete joists and chromite joists roofs with various types of concrete, clay and polystyrene blocks, concrete slab, and Uboot concrete slab from cradle to the gate and processing technique using Simapro 9.1.1.7 software with the CML-IA baseline)2001) was studied. Also, the results of LCA obtained from the CML-IA baseline method were compared with the results achieved from GaBi software. The sensitivity analysis was performed to find materials with the greatest role in pollution generation. Furthermore, the economic evaluation of the roofs according to the price list for the building on Iran's Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) was carried out. The roof of the Concrete joist and polystyrene block has performed the most suitable on the roofs due to global warming, acidification, and eutrophication. The global warming, acidification, and eutrophication results using the CML-IA baseline (World 2000) method were slightly different from the BEES+ and the IPCC techniques results. Concrete joist with concrete block roof is the most economical roof among the different roofs. The comparison of LCA of eight roof systems with Simapro 9.1.1.7 and Gabi software is the first-time study, which may indicate one of the originalities of the work.