Abstract
To meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals of climate change mitigation and sustainable cities, low-carbon or carbon-negative buildings are becoming increasingly common. The buildings are planned to compensate for the embodied energy in their materials by using low-emission materials and generating emission-free energy. Embodied energy is minimized while energy generation is maximized. However, embodied energy calculations seldom consider the risk of building defects that require repairs or early replacement of building elements. As such, a building’s sustainability is often calculated under the assumption that significant defects do not happen, which is known to rarely be the case. In this article, the material and monetary costs of repairing building defects are analysed. Findings suggest that certain building defects, like major roof leaks, have a significant carbon footprint. A large portion of this footprint can be attributed to the drying of the building after a leak is discovered. Building defects are common enough that the risk should not be neglected in life cycle analyses. Likewise, measures taken to reduce the risk of building defects, such as avoiding design solutions known to pose difficulties, may be considered as means to improve the sustainability of a building as well as reducing economic costs.
Highlights
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presented by the United Nations lay out a vision of a future of sustainable human development
For the minor and medium defect cases, the carbon emissions associated with the dehumidifier are vastly larger than for the materials
The moderate defect case incurs carbon emissions around 2 % of this, most of which is attributed to building drying
Summary
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) presented by the United Nations lay out a vision of a future of sustainable human development. The goals are formulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, eclipsing matters such as gender equality, poverty elimination, access to sanitation, and sustainable cities [1]. The building sector will play a crucial role in fulfilling several of these targets. This article will primarily concern issues relevant to targets 9.4, 12.2 and 12.5, which address sustainable use of natural resources and the reduction of waste. It has already become a trend in the building sector to design buildings using significantly fewer resources and requiring less energy to operate than the norm only a few decades ago. -called “zero emission buildings” aim to create buildings that fully or partially compensate for the resources used in their construction and operation through renewable energy generation [2]
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